Investigate March 2009

NO ONE GETS CLOSER

GET ‘AIR CON’ – IAN WISHART’S NEW BOOK – DETAILS INSIDE

INVESTIGATE March 2009:

KEY JOHN THE FULL INTERVIEW

John Key – The Interview • Waitangi Rort • The New Winebox

The PM let’s rip at the Greens, Fiji, the ‘New World Order’ and much more

Waitangi Rort

Documents prove taxpayers have now bought forest ‘twice’

The New Winebox A tax haven bank, accused of helping launder cash, and its NZ political connections

$8.30 March 2009

Issue 98

Lipstick Soldiers

Are Western armies getting soft?

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Contents 24

42

32

52

FEATURES

24 Man At The Helm

42 Lipstick Soldiers

32 Waitangi Forest Rort

52 The New Winebox

This is Prime Minister John Key’s most comprehensive interview so far. IAN WISHART finds out Key’s real feelings towards the Greens, and why he’s supporting Helen Clark’s “lifelong ambition” in the UN

The Kaingaroa forest treaty settlement was rushed through with indecent haste by Labour just before the election. But is it in fact nothing more than a $500 million bribe to Maoridom? ROSS BAKER details evidence showing it’s the second time the Government has paid for the same forest

Girls in uniform seemed like a good idea at the time, but as a wave of political correctness saps military morale around the world. HAL G. P. COLEBATCH suggests the experiment has been a dangerous failure

What do a National Government minister, a former cabinet minister under Helen Clark, a tax haven banking and finance conglomerate and Osama bin Laden have in common? IAN WISHART has the story from TGIF Edition Cover: Presspix

18

Editorial and opinion 06 Focal Point

Volume 9, issue 98, ISSN 1175-1290

Editorial

08 Vox-Populi

The roar of the crowd

16 Simply Devine

Miranda Devine on mad Greens

18 Mark Steyn

Obama’s concrete boots

20 Eyes Right

Richard Prosser’s phone problems

22 Line 1

Chris Carter’s slam-dunks

22

Lifestyle 62 Money

Peter Hensley on getting rich

64 Education Amy Brooke on brainwashing kids

66 Science

Internal clocks, look like clocks

68 Technology

Learning a new language?

64

70 Sport

Chris Forster on Daniel Carter

72 Health

Claire Morrow’s nit picking

74 Alt.Health New autism culprit

76 Travel

Visiting the French Riviera

82 Food

James Morrow’s spare ribs

74

84 Drive

NZ EDITION Advertising Sales

Richa Fuller Fuller Media 09 522 7062 021 03 74079 richa@fullermedia.co.nz

Contributing Writers: Melody Towns, Selwyn Parker, Amy Brooke, Chris Forster, Peter Hensley, Chris Carter, Mark Steyn, Chris Philpott, Michael Morrissey, Miranda Devine, Richard Prosser, Claire Morrow, James Morrow, Len Restall, Laura Wilson, and the worldwide resources of MCTribune Group, UPI and Newscom Art Direction Design & Layout

Heidi Wishart Bozidar Jokanovic

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92 Music

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We take no responsibility for unsolicited material sent to us. Please enclose a stamped, SAE envelope. Inquiries in the first instance should be made via email or fax.

94 Movies

Investigate magazine Australasia is published by HATM Magazines Ltd

VW Jetta TDI

86 Toybox

The latest and greatest

88 Pages

Michael Morrissey’s summer picks Chris Philpott’s CD reviews The Boy In Striped Pajamas

84

Chief Executive Officer Heidi Wishart Group Managing Editor Ian Wishart Customer Services Debbie Marcroft

96 DVDs

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> focal point

Editorial

A bad month for the Greens

I

t looks as though 2009 could be shaping up as an ‘annus coms wanting to steer it in a Marxist direction. horribilis’ for the Green movement in Australasia.

It is impossible for the parliamentary Green Party to change For a start, as Miranda Devine divines in this issue, it is its spots now, without a grassroots cleanout of the main party now clear that a major contributing factor to the scale of the branches so that Keith Locke, Sue Bradford, Russel Norman et Australian bushfire devastation was environmental restrictions al are not re-selected as list candidates. implemented by Green politicians across the ditch.

With Norman as co-leader, however, that is never going to hapI’m reminded of a song by US band ‘Casting Crowns’, which pen, and the pending retirement of Jeanette Fitzsimons will only has the memorable line critiquing our current policies of “save hasten the rot. the trees and kill the children”. Well, this February the greens cerThus, we may as well call a spade a spade. The New Zealand Green tainly achieved the latter in Victoria, but managed to kill a few of Party isn’t really Green. It’s Red. And if the mainstream media are the former as well along with countless animals. too polite to say so, then it’s up to talkback callers, bloggers and The horrific deaths are too awful to comprehend, but the grisly newspaper letter writers to remind voters about the Red Party. results were all too visible to firefighters searching the ashes. In Don’t get me wrong, however. I’m not condemning every policy one house, a family was found huddling together, apparently the of the Greens, and this magazine has been highly supportive of adults trying to shield a baby and young children from the searing many of its genuine environmental policies on fluoride, dioxins, flames. They didn’t stand a chance – eight bodies were found fused food labeling, genetic modification and the like. together in a death embrace, We will continue to be including the littlest one. supportive of initiatives that The anti-smacking law was the In a further bitter irony, genuinely provide a better many of the bush dwellers in environment. But like many beginning of the end for the Greens. on the centre right and cencountry Victoria are Greenleaning members of alternatre left, we’ve become highly Ironic that the electorate gave them cynical about a political tive communities and artists’ enclaves. Green politicians, party that puts more effort a spanking in response sensing they might get votes, into legalizing prostitution, pushed for measures prohibmarijuana and – conversely iting the clearing of trees and even dead vegetation from around – criminalizing parents for smacking, than it does into environhouses and properties. The logic was that humans had to blend mental initiatives. into nature, not bend nature to their will.

Taking all that into account, and the well-tested truism that One householder who ignored the Green laws was fined tens turkeys don’t vote for an early Christmas (even vegan ones), the of thousands of dollars by his local council for clearing bush back warnings of Tanczos and Key will fall on deaf ears at Green Party from his house – that man was the only survivor on his street. HQ, Fitzsimons will be replaced as leader by some hard leftie, Everyone else who obeyed the new laws is now dead. and in 2011 the Greens might actually disappear from the politiAdd this stupidity, and the growing backlash to it, to the prob- cal stage because the public have well and truly woken up to their lem identified by NZ Prime Minister John Key about our own socialist radicalism.

Green Party. Picking up on former Green MP Nandor Tanczos’ The anti-smacking law was the beginning of the end for meme, Key also believes the New Zealand Greens have lost their the Greens. Ironic that the electorate gave them a spanking in way, telling Investigate they’ve become too hard left, too social engi- response. neering, at the expense of being a genuine environmental party.

Key’s prescription, as you’ll see, is calling on the Greens to work out whether they want to be a hard-left, socialist party, or whether they want to be an environmental, centrist party.

But the task is not as simple as Key paints it. The environmental wing of the Greens actually lost that ideological battle a decade ago, when the party was captured in a deliberate takeover by neo INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

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> vox populi

Communiques The roar of the crowd An anti-Zionist writes Have just read the article in the latest magazine – re local protests against Israel’s blitz on Gaza.

With respect – Trevor has to be kidding...

I participated in these protests and I am a New Zealander – not a Muslim – nor do I think religion has much to do with this ongoing conflict.

Israel has been slowly expanding for 60 years – and this is the root cause of the hostilities.

Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany bombed, invaded and annexed countries and territories as a prelude to their quest for World Empire.

Israel’s drive for regional dominance has followed in their footsteps, imitating their style: indiscriminate aerial bombings of civilian and military facilities, a savage blitzkrieg led by armoured vehicles, disdain and repudiation of all criticism from international agencies was accompanied by an open, military buildup for a new and bigger war against Iran .

Like the Nazi leadership, who played on the ‘Bolshevik threat’, the Israeli high command has set in motion a vast world-wide propaganda campaign led by its world Zionist network, raising the spectre of ‘Islamic terror’ to justify its preparations for a military assault on seventy-four million Iranians.

Just as Nazi Germany interpreted the passivity, sympathy and impotence of the West when confronted by ‘facts on the ground’ as license for aggression, the Israeli military machine receives a powerful impetus for new wars by the Western governments’ inaction and flaccid response to its invasion of Lebanon, the bombing of Syria and now its Nazi style blitz and conquest of Gaza.

For the Israeli high command, the impotence and complicity of the Western states, marks the way to bigger and bloodier wars to establish Israel ‘s supremacy and dominance of the Middle East, from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf .

This is about human resistance to an abuse of dominance.

In every other country, Liberman’s program would be called fascist, without quotation marks.

Fascism has become a serious player in the Israeli public domain.

The three main parties have now legitimized it.

This phenomenon must be addressed before it is too late.

Scott Ewing, via email

I Am the Soldier Who Slept In Your Home The following letter appeared in an Israeli newspaper, and I thought Investigate readers would find it informative.

Jim Bensemann, Nelson INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

Hello, While the world watches the ruins in Gaza, you return to your home which remains standing. However, I am sure that it is clear to you that someone was in your home while you were away.

I am that someone.

I spent long hours imagining how you would react when you walked into your home. How you would feel when you understood that IDF soldiers had slept on your mattresses and used your blankets to keep warm.

I knew that it would make you angry and sad and that you would feel this violation of the most intimate areas of your life by those defined as your enemies, with stinging humiliation. I am convinced that you hate me with unbridled hatred, and you do not have even the tiniest desire to hear what I have to say. At the same time, it is important for me to say the following in the hope that there is even the minutest chance that you will hear me.

I spent many days in your home. You and your family’s presence was felt in every corner. I saw your family portraits on the wall, and I thought of my family. I saw your wife’s perfume bottles on the bureau, and I thought of my wife. I saw your children’s toys and their English language schoolbooks. I saw your personal computer and how you set up the modem and wireless phone next to the screen, just as I do.

I wanted you to know that despite the immense disorder you found in your house that was created during a search for explosives and tunnels (which were indeed found in other homes), we did our best to treat your possessions with respect. When I moved the computer table, I disconnected the cables and lay them down neatly on the floor, as I would do with my own computer. I even covered the computer from dust with a piece of cloth. I tried to put back the clothes that fell when we moved the closet although not the same as you would have done, but at least in such a way that nothing would get lost.

I know that the devastation, the bullet holes in your walls and the destruction of those homes near you place my descriptions in a ridiculous light. Still, I need you to understand me, us, and hope that you will channel your anger and criticism to the right places.

I decided to write you this letter specifically because I stayed in your home.

I can surmise that you are intelligent and educated and there are those in your household that are university students. Your children learn English, and you are connected to the Internet. You are not ignorant; you know what is going on around you.

Therefore, I am sure you know that Quassam rockets were launched from your neighbourhood into Israeli towns and cities.

How could you see these weekly launches and not think that one

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day we would say “enough”?! Did you ever consider that it is perhaps wrong to launch rockets at innocent civilians trying to lead a normal life, much like you? How long did you think we would sit back without reacting?

I can hear you saying “it’s not me, it’s Hamas”. My intuition tells me you are not their most avid supporter. If you look closely at the sad reality in which your people live, and you do not try to deceive yourself or make excuses about “occupation”, you must certainly reach the conclusion that the Hamas is your real enemy.

The reality is so simple, even a seven year old can understand: Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip, removing military bases and its citizens from Gush Katif. Nonetheless, we continued to provide you with electricity, water, and goods (and this I know very well as during my reserve duty I guarded the border crossings more than once, and witnessed hundreds of trucks full of goods entering a blockade-free Gaza every day).

Despite all this, for reasons that cannot be understood and with a lack of any rational logic, Hamas launched missiles on Israeli towns.

For three years we clenched our teeth and restrained ourselves. In the end, we could not take it anymore and entered the Gaza strip, into your neighbourhood, in order to remove those who want to kill us. A reality that is painful but very easy to explain.

As soon as you agree with me that Hamas is your enemy and because of them, your people are miserable, you will also understand that the change must come from within. I am acutely aware of the fact that what I say is easier to write than to do, but I do not see any other way. You, who are connected to the world and concerned about your children’s education, must lead, together with your friends, a civil uprising against Hamas.

I swear to you, that if the citizens of Gaza were busy paving roads, building schools, opening factories and cultural institutions instead of dwelling in self pity, arms smuggling and nurturing a hatred to your Israeli neighbours, your homes would not be in ruins right now. If your leaders were not corrupt and motivated by hatred, your home would not have been harmed. If someone would have stood up and shouted that there is no point in launching missiles on innocent civilians, I would not have to stand in your kitchen as a soldier.

You don’t have money, you tell me? You have more than you can imagine.

Even before Hamas took control of Gaza, during the time of Yasser Arafat, millions if not billions of dollars donated by the world community to the Palestinians was used for purchasing arms or taken directly to your leaders bank accounts. Gulf States, the emirates – your brothers, your flesh and blood, are some of the richest nations in the world. If there was even a small feeling of solidarity between Arab nations, if these nations had but the smallest interest in reconstructing the Palestinian people – your situation would be very different.

You must be familiar with Singapore. The land mass there is not much larger than the Gaza strip, it is considered the second most populated country in the world. Yet, Singapore is a successful, prospering, and well managed country. Why not the same for you?

My friend, I would like to call you by name, but I will not do so publicly. I want you to know that I am 100% at peace with what my country did, what my army did, and what I did. However, I feel your pain. I am sorry for the destruction you are finding in your neighbourhood at this moment.

On a personal level, I did what I could to minimize the damage to your home as much as possible.

10 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

In my opinion, we have a lot more in common than you might imagine. I am a civilian, not a soldier, and in my private life I have nothing to do with the military. However, I have an obligation to leave my home, put on a uniform, and protect my family every time we are attacked. I have no desire to be in your home wearing a uniform again and I would be more than happy to sit with you as a guest on your beautiful balcony, drinking sweet tea seasoned with the sage growing in your garden.

The only person who could make that dream a reality is you.

Take responsibility for yourself, your family, your people, and start to take control of your destiny. How? I do not know. Maybe there is something to be learned from the Jewish people who rose up from the most destructive human tragedy of the 20th century, and instead of sinking into self-pity, built a flourishing and prospering country. It is possible, and it is in your hands. I am ready to be there to provide a shoulder of support and help to you.

But only you can move the wheels of history.

Yishai G, Israeli Army (reserve)

Penny keeps them honest This $17 million Otago District Health Board fraud shows, in my considered opinion, a significant ‘systems failure’.

How on earth could this have been able to happen? Who was checking?

Misuse of public office for private gain – is a corrupt practice.

This was a corrupt practice!

The problem in NZ is that no body or organisation is tasked with ensuring that systems and procedures are set up to prevent corrupt practices which stem from ‘conflicts of interest’. The Police, SFO, Ombudsman, Office of the Auditor-General are all ‘complaints-driven’.

But – good news is at hand!

Following a meeting with senior Ministry of Justice officials at a meeting on 28 January 2009, I and others have been asked to prepare a ‘business plan’ outlining the case for an NZ Independent Commission Against Corruption. Apparently the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption serves a population of about 4 million and costs $18 million per year. My argument was that Auckland City Council alone was spending $62 million in the 2008 – 2009 financial year just on ‘consultant’ contractors.

Auckland City Council CEO David Rankin will not tell us exactly where over $850 million is being spent in this same year on private sector providers of ‘goods, services and people’.

That’s the main reason why I’m disputing and refusing to pay Auckland City Council rates – because it’s OUR public money and citizens have right to know.

(I lost the first round in the District Court when my defence was struck out, but I am appealing in the High Court, the next procedural step being on 17 February 2009. Penelope Bright v Auckland City Council, CIV 2008-404-8468 ) At a meeting with the Auditor-General Kevin Brady on 29 January 2009, he drew our attention to the ‘Public Records Act 2005’, which I for one, knew nothing about. Apparently neither do a lot of Councils.

(Including, it would appear – Auckland City Council?)

Public Records Act 2005 “17 Requirement to create and maintain records (1) Every public office and local authority must create and main-

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tain full and accurate records of its affairs, in accordance with normal, prudent business practice, including the records of any matter that is contracted out to an independent contractor.

(2) Every public office must maintain in an accessible form, so as to be able to be used for subsequent reference, all public records that are in its control, until their disposal is authorised by or under this Act or required by or under another Act. (3) Every local authority must maintain in an accessible form, so as to be able to be used for subsequent reference, all protected records that are in its control, until their disposal is authorised by or under this Act.” A very interesting development for my rates case!

Strongly recommend that people check out this significant piece of legislation in its entirety.

We have some wonderful legislation in this country!

Pity so much of it is not implemented by those who have the statutory duties and get the public monies to so do!

WHY IS THAT?????

Penny Bright, Waterpressure Group

A scared Labour voter A testimony to our proud Kiwi nation is the resilience of its workforce to endure two legislated statutes in 16 years, engineered to erode them of fundamental rights and vocation security, by placing the employment status back into the Victorian age. The Employment Contracts Act was the initial legislated document that amid debate, submissions and much controversy evolved as a safety net for employers, to the detriment of many employees. As their latest proposal derived from a defeated private members bill in 2006, National launches its latest fiasco , deemed the Workers Probation Bill, fast tracked by the parliamentary select committee, heralding a flagrant misuse of authority in respect of the 90 day employee trial issue. An area of concern is National’s objective to target companies of 20 or less staff as the prime objectives of this legislature. Surely companies or business groups with a staffing level in excess of 20 would be more financially equipped to continually retrain employees within continuing 90 day interim employment periods.

Maybe the hidden agenda and continuing contingency plans of this issue are to encompass those employers with larger staffing levels, thereby incorporating a wider sector of our workforce, ultimately resulting in the demise of a larger degree of employees. It is inevitable that a forum of public debate and platform of opinion will eventually evolve over this controversial issue. Within this context hopefully the CTU will pro-actively appraise, pursue and if necessary oppose the merits of this legislation on behalf of the employed populace of New Zealand.

Gary Knight,Christchurch

Darwin’s birthday 2009 is an auspicious year for evolutionists. Feb 12 (Darwin Day) was the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, and this year is the 150th anniversary of the publication of his world shaking book Origin of the Species. No one can doubt the lasting impression on the collective public mind of the challenging claims of this man and his publications.

With these anniversaries in mind I thought it would be the right occasion to reflect on the claims made by evolutionists and to brush up on any new developments relating to the subject. There appear to be very few of any substance, except perhaps the claim made by 14 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

Ernst Mayr in his book What Evolution Is (p 175) that evolution has been “transubstantiated” from “theory” to a “fact.” I think it is appropriate for using religious terminology here.

I thought that this book, published less than a decade ago by Mayr, who along with Richard Dawkins is a doyen of the inner circle of evolutionary thinking, might be a good book to read to help me examine my position vis-a-vis Evolution, Creationism and Intelligent Design (ID). In the foreword of this book Mayr is described as “one of the greatest biologists of our day.”

The book parades all the old claims clouded in the mists of technological, esoteric and pseudo-scientific language which can be intimidating for the average reader. However, when I read the sub-chapter ‘How to Reconstruct the Path from Ape to Man’ p238-40, I was convinced that if Mayr failed in this area the rest of the book had little value. In this passage of 3 pages I expected to find definitive ‘factual’ answers to support the concept of changes from ape to man. This is what I found – a list of uncertainties, ambiguities and admissions of failure. Here are the terms Mayr uses to describe his dilemma: “Alas, the reconstruction of the steps of hominization proved to be very difficult”; “No hope for continuity between ape and man”; “More disturbingly....and this was most disturbing.” “due to incompleteness in the fossil record...”; (some fossil types expected to relate to man were) “seemingly separated discontinuities”; “Unfortunately, no hominid fossils...”; “To make matters worse...”; “Subjectivity is inevitable in the reconstruction of the missing parts”; “most hominid fossils are extremely incomplete”; “rather incongruous combinations were found” (comparing apelike and homo sapiens); (the cons and pros of all interpretations were) “somewhat controversial”; “This would be bewildering for the non-specialist reader” (but the specialist reader can tap-dance to the jargon!); “It is important in this bewildering situation not to take anything for granted”; “our incomplete knowledge of the fossil hominids...”; And finally to end this rather sad and pathetic list of failures we have these last 8 words – “on the basis of a few scrappy remains.”

Further along from page 240, on p 266 we find – “The fossil record of past evolution is still woefully inadequate, as illustrated in the hominid fossil record.” Mayr also admits that “our ignorance is still enormous. But there are also many uncertainties about aspects of evolutionary theory” And on this same page the disturbing adjective “puzzling” has to be repeated 3 times in an attempt to evade the implied complexities of evolution.

I realize I will be criticized for listing incomplete quotes and for quoting out of direct context, but anyone wishing to read the unabridged sub-chapter I have referred to can find the book in any general library. In spite of isolating these quotes it should be obvious to any perceptive reader that the negative tenor of the language would do little to support a theory pretending to be a fact.

Malcolm Ford, Via email

DROP US A LINE Letters to the editor can be posted to: PO Box 302188, North Harbour, North Shore 0751, or emailed to: editorial@investigatemagazine.com

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 15

> simply devine

Miranda Devine

Green ideas must take blame for deaths

I

t wasn’t climate change which killed as many as 300 people A council committed to reducing carbon emissions dominates the in Victoria this month. It wasn’t arsonists. It was the unstop- Nillumbik shire, a so-called “green wedge” area, where restrictions pable intensity of a bushfire, turbo-charged by huge quanti- on removing vegetation around houses reportedly added to the ties of ground fuel which had been allowed to accumulate over dangers. In nearby St Andrews, where more than 20 people are years of drought. It was the power of green ideology over govern- believed to have died, surviving residents have spoken angrily of ment to oppose attempts to reduce fuel hazards before a megafire “greenies” who prevented them from cutting back trees near their erupts, and which prevents landholders from clearing vegetation property, including in one case, a tea tree that went “whoomp”.

Dr Phil Cheney, the former head of the CSIRO’s bushfire research to protect themselves.

So many people need not have died so horribly. The warnings have unit and one of the pioneers of prescribed burning, said yesterday been there for a decade. If politicians are intent on whipping up a if the fire-ravaged Victorian areas had been hazard-reduced, the lynch mob to divert attention from their own culpability, it is not flames would not have been as intense.

Kinglake and Maryville, now crime scenes, are built among tall arsonists who should be hanging from lamp-posts but greenies.

Governments appeasing the green beast have ignored numer- forests of messmate stringy bark trees which pose a special fire hazous state and federal bushfire inquiries over the past decade, ard, with peeling bark creating firebrands that carry fire five kiloalmost all of which have recommended increasing the practice of metres out. “The only way to reduce the flammability of the bark is “prescribed burning”. Also known as “hazard reduction”, it is a by prescribed burning” every five to seven years, Cheney said. He estimates between 35 and 50 methodical regime of burning tonnes a hectare of dry fuel off flammable ground cover in Surviving residents have spoken were waiting to be gobbled cooler months, in a controlled up by the inferno. fashion, so it does not fuel the angrily of “greenies” who prevented Fuel loads above about inevitable summer bushfires. eight tonnes a hectare are conIn July 2007 Scott Gentle, the them from cutting back trees near sidered a fire hazard. A federal Victorian manager of Timber parliamentary inquiry into Communities Australia, who their property bushfires in 2003 heard that lives in Healesville where two a fourfold increase in ground fires were still burning last week, gave testimony to a Victorian parliamentary bushfire inquiry fuel leads to a 13-fold increase in the heat generated by a fire.

Things are no better in NSW, although we don’t quite have so prescient it sends a chill down your spine.

“Living in an area like Healesville, whether because of dumb luck Victoria’s perfect storm of winds and forest types. Near Dubbo two or whatever, we have not experienced a fire … since … about 1963. years ago, as a bushfire raged through the Goonoo Community God help us if we ever do, because it will make Ash Wednesday Conservation Area, volunteer firefighters bulldozing a control line were obstructed by National Parks and Wildlife Service employees look like a picnic.” God help him, he was right.

Gentle complained of obstruction from green local government who had driven from Sydney to stop vegetation being damaged.

Only seven months ago, the Victorian Parliament’s Environment authorities of any type of fire mitigation strategies. He told of green interference at Kinglake – at the epicentre of the disaster, where at and Natural Resources Committee tabled its report into the impact of public land management on bushfires, with five recommendaleast 147 people died – during a smaller fire there in 2007.

“The contractors were out working on the fire lines. They put in tions to enhance prescribed burning. This included tripling the containment lines and cleared off some of the fire trails. Two weeks amount of land to be hazard-reduced from 130,000 to 385,000 later that fire broke out, but unfortunately those trails had been hectares a year. There has been little but lip service from the blocked up again [by greens] to turn it back to its natural state … Government in response. Teary politicians might pepper their talkInstances like that are just too numerous to mention. Governments ing points with opportunistic intimations of “climate change” and … have been in too much of a rush to appease green idealism … “unprecedented” weather, but they are only diverting the blame.

With yes-minister fudging and craven inclusion of green lobbyists This thing about locking up forests is just not working.”

The Kinglake area was a nature-loving community of tree- in decision-making, they have greatly exacerbated this tragedy. devinemiranda@hotmail.com changers, organic farmers and artists to the north of Melbourne.

16 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

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March 2009 17

> straight talk

Mark Steyn

Obama walks on water in concrete boots

I

n the Washington Post, E. J. Dionne tried to break it gently Barney Frank, and Harry Reid. Appearing on The Rush Limbaugh to us: “No occupant of the White House has ever been able Show last week, I got a little muddled over two adjoining newspato walk on water.” per clippings – one on the stimulus, the other on those octuplets Yeah, sure, no previous occupant of the White House has been in California – and for a brief moment the two stories converged. able to walk on water – your Eisenhowers and Roosevelts, your Everyone’s hammering that mom – she’s divorced, unemployed, Chester Arthurs and Grover Clevelands and whatnot. But Barack living in a small house with parents who have a million bucks’ Obama didn’t run as just another of those squaresville losers. He worth of debt, and she’s already got six kids. So she has in vitro was gonna heal the planet, and lower the oceans. So, even if he fertilization to have eight more. But isn’t that exactly what the couldn’t walk on water, he should at least be able to paddle in it. Feds have done? Last fall, they gave birth to an $850 billion bail“He is a community organizer like Jesus was,” said Susan Sarandon, out they couldn’t afford and didn’t have enough time to keep an “and now we’re a community and he can organize us.” eye on, and now four months later they’re going to do it all over So how’s that going? Jesus took a handful of loaves and two fish again, but this time they want trillionuplets. Barney and Nancy and fed 5,000 people. Barack wants to take a trillion pieces of pork represent the in vitro fertilization of the federal budget. And it’s and feed it to a handful of Democratic-party interest groups. Jesus the taxpayers who’ll get stuck with the nappies. picked twelve disciples. Barack seems to have gone more for one of Those supporters who were wary of touting Obama as the those Dirty Dozen, caper-movie line-ups, where the mission is so walk-on-water Messiah did their best to lower expectations by perilous and so audacious that only the scuzziest lowlifes recruited hailing him merely as the new FDR. You remember the old from every waterfront dive FDR – “We have nothing have any chance of pulling it to fear but fear itself.” Ha! Maybe it’s time for President off. The ends justify the mean With the new New Deal, we SOBs: “Indispensable” Tim have everything to fear. As Obama to come out and give one of President Obama warned Geithner, wanted in twelve jurisdictions for claiming his this month, “A failure to kid’s summer camp as a busi- his big hopey-changey speeches. It’s act, and act now, will turn ness expense, is the only guy crisis into a catastrophe.” If been a few weeks now, and I kinda you’re of those moonstruck with the savvy to crack the code of the U.S. economy.

Obammysoxers still driving miss them Tom “Home, James!” Daschle around with the “HOPE, is the ruthless backseat driver NOT FEAR” bumper stickwho can figure out how to steer the rusting gurney of U.S. health ers, please note that, due to an unfortunate proofreading error at care through the corridors of power. Charles Bronson is the hard- the printing plant, certain nouns in that phrase may have been bitten psycho ex-con who can’t go straight but knows how to turn accidentally transposed. around the Department of the Interior.

As it happens, the best way to ensure catastrophe is to “act now.”

And, of course, there’s the lovable dough-faced shnook in the front It would be nice if the world could all prance along in regimented office, Robert “Fall Guy” Gibbs. He didn’t do nuthin’ wrong, but, unison like the Radio City Changettes. But, alas, the foreigners when seven nominees die in a grisly shootout with a Taxable Benefit made the mistake of actually reading the “stimulus” bill, and the Swat Team in the alley behind the Senate, he makes the mistake of protectionist measures buried on page 739 sub-section XII(d) looking sweaty and shifty while answering routine questions. ended, instantly, the Obama honeymoon overseas. The European A president doesn’t have to be able to walk on water. But he does Union has threatened a trade war. Up in Canada, provincial prehave to choose the right crew for the ship, especially if he’s planning miers called it “a march to insanity.” Wait a minute: I thought the on spending most of his time at the captain’s table schmoozing Obama era was meant to be the retreat from insanity, a blessed the celebrity guests with a lot of deep thoughts about “hope” and return to multilateral transnational harmony? “change.” Far worse than his cabinet picks was President Obama’s As longtime readers will know, I’m all in favour of flipping the decision to make the “stimulus” racket the all-but-sole priority of bird to the global community. But at least, when Rummy was his first month, and then outsource the project to Nancy Pelosi, doing his shtick about “Old Europe,” he did it intentionally. To 18 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

Jesus took a handful of loaves and two fish and fed 5,000 people. Barack wants to take a trillion pieces of pork and feed it to a handful of Democratic-party interest groups

cheese off the foreigners entirely by accident before you’ve even had your first black-tie banquet is quite an accomplishment.

Protectionism is serious business to the Continentals. Oh, to be sure, if the swaggering unilateralist Yank cowboy invades some Third World basket-case they’ll seize on it as an opportunity for some cheap moral posturing. But in the end they don’t much care one way or the other. Plunging the planet into global depression, on the other hand, is an entirely different matter.

The bloated non-stimulus and the under-taxed nominees are part of the same story. I’m with Tom Daschle: I understand why he had no desire to toss another six-figure sum into the great sucking maw of the federal treasury. Who knows better than a senator who’s voted for every tax increase to cross his desk that all this dough is entirely wasted? Tom and Tim Geithner and Charlie Rangel and all the rest are right: They can do more good with the money than the United States government can. I only wish they followed the logic of their behaviour and recognized that what works for them would also work for every other citizen. Instead,

they insist that the sole solution to our woes is a record-setting, wasteful government-spending spree.

Maybe it’s time for President Obama to come out and give one of his big hopey-changey speeches. It’s been a few weeks now, and I kinda miss them. You know – “We are the change we’ve been waiting for.” “We have nothing to hope for but hope itself.” “Ask not what your hope can change for you, ask what you can hope for your change.” Etc. But I wonder if the old songs from last month’s hit parade would play as well today. Early February, Salon headlined a story on Obama: “The New Great Communicator . . . Isn’t.” Oh, dear. It’s early yet, but the gulf between the rhetoric and the reality, between the audacity of hope and the reality of pork, yawns ever wider. Right now, it’s the Obama mythology that urgently needs some stimulus. Some of us never expected him to walk on water. But we didn’t think he’d be all at sea taking on quite so much of it after a mere two weeks.

Mark Steyn, an Investigate columnist, is author of America Alone. © Mark Steyn 2009

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 19

> eyes right

Richard Prosser Rural delivery

I

’m on the move. After fifteen years in Central Otago, I have the farming sector. Carpets and yarns manufactured in city mills, become a Cantabrian. It’s a bit of a wrench in many ways, but are dependent on wool grown out in the back blocks. Dairy prodeasy enough in others; after all, I’ve always been a wee bit one- ucts made in Mt Wellington or Invercargill require milk grown on eyed, so I should fit in here, and on top of that I did grow up on the dairy farms of Southland and the Waikato. Timber and wood the Hauraki Plains, so the idea of living on a Flat Earth is not one products need trees, and trees need forests, and forests don’t grow I find entirely alien. And despite my relocation, I’m still a coun- in suburbia. Our wine industry relies on grapes which are protry boy. For at least 34 of my 42 years, my address has included a duced miles from anywhere remotely metropolitan. The city folk line which denotes R. D. something-or-other, and I’m happy to who make these things possible, and their jobs and businesses, report that this hasn’t changed. have every bit as much a vested interest in the viability of life in What also hasn’t changed, however, is the apparent disregard, disdain the Boondocks, as do those of us who live here. even, which altogether too many service providers – largely urbanEven Tourism, which we euphemistically refer to as an ‘industry’ based – appear to hold, for country bumpkins like Yours Truly. despite it being wholly dependent on the whims and vagaries of Now we’re used to doing it hard out in the sticks, the little luxu- world affairs and the discretionary dollars of foreigners, mostly takes ries of life can’t be taken for granted, and I wouldn’t want to swap place, and has most of its appeal, out in the back of beyond. the outlook from my lounge window for the urban alternative.

Perhaps you see my point. We get annoyed, we rural types, when But right now, I do want to have a bit of a grizzle. we have to pay a fuel levy to help fund roading projects in Auckland, But I’m not just bellyaching for my own selfish purposes. There but no reciprocal contribution is sought from suburban commuters, are good reasons why metrowhen it comes to upgrading politan New Zealand should our one-lane bridges or re Internet Service ‘providers’, in be concerned about the hand gravelling the No. 2 Road the provinces get dealt, because from Hicksville to Nowhere. this Free Market, just don’t appear It makes us feel like we’re not even today, in the 21st Century, the town still rides largely on as important, y’see. to be interested in hooking the the country’s back.

But my particular beef this Never mind the non-event month concerns the proviof the IT revolution, the nation’s economic powerhouse up to sion of Internet services to myth of the knowledge-wave rural areas; or, more to the the global economy economy, or the minor conpoint, the lack of them. Out tributions of comparatively here at the long end of the tiny niche industries such as building super yachts or making copper wire (does 30km from Downtown Christchurch really qualHollywood blockbusters. In today’s New Zealand, around seventy ify as being in the middle of nowhere, I wonder?), the electrons percent of the economy, and seventy percent of export earnings, are run uncommon slow. The Rural Delivery mailman can often tell still dependent, ultimately, on agriculture in one form or another, you what’s going to be in your daily email, because he passed it including forestry and fishing. And agriculture doesn’t take place limping along the phone line on his morning run, out in his van in Queen Street or Lambton Quay or Moorehouse Avenue, or at in the empty country with the dust and the magpies.

Westfield Mall or Spaghetti Junction or the Port of Tauranga. It Yes, I’m exaggerating, but not by much. Really. Broadband is a takes place out in the Wops. mighty long way from achieving the same blanket penetration in Now stay with me, I’m not saying for a minute that any of those rural New Zealand which it might enjoy in a first-world country. places aren’t important. What I’m saying is that in economic terms Internet Service ‘providers’, in this Free Market, just don’t appear those places exist, or more to the point were originally created, to be interested in hooking the nation’s economic powerhouse up primarily, to service the production of wealth in the Heartland, to the global economy. and they are not, of themselves, more important than it. We’re So what, you may ask? I mean we can go satellite, or wireless, all in this together. we do have options; they’re slower than fixed line broadband, and Our secondary industries centre, for the greater part, on pro- more expensive, and they don’t always work, particularly in bad cessing and adding value to the primary commodities produced by weather – but we have them, so why should it be your problem?

20 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

Well, consider that aforementioned copper wire for a moment.

It’s the same as the one which is plugged into your house in the suburbs. It wasn’t manufactured in New Zealand, and New Zealand had to part with overseas funds in order to import it; funds earned from exports, exports produced, you guessed it, out here in the Boonies. The same goes for anything else imported which contributes to your lifestyle. The power to run your computer comes through yet another wire, via which it is Delivered from a power station, which in turn is built in a Rural location so that it doesn’t have to be in Your Back Yard.

Or maybe it’s just me, and perhaps no-one else has experienced a complete lack of care, concern, or even interest when trying to get a rural broadband hookup. My ISP was Ihug, now absorbed

by Vodafone. My experience this past month is that they appear to be particularly dreadful when it comes to customer service.

I contacted them a fortnight before we moved in order to get my home phone and internet service relocated. No problems, I was told, everything would be up and running come possession day…but then the ‘issues’ began. Connection would be the day after. Then there was a problem with something called an “open service order” on my line, and I should contact Telecom to find out what it was. Rather curious, I thought, given that my phone service was with them, not Telecom, and besides, they hadn’t told me what my new number was going to be. We got that sorted, after a few emails, and several hours waiting in the queue for the helpdesk to answer my call.

Then they told me that they couldn’t, after all, provide me with broadband because of a lack of capacity at the exchange, and quoted the un-connectable number…which turned out to be my old Clyde number, which I had had broadband on, lack of capacity or not, from Ihug, for about three years, and which I had had disconnected just the week before, by them, in order for my service to be relocated. Sigh.

Ihug’s Auckland staff didn’t appear to be able to grasp the fact that Clyde and Rangiora, despite having the same area code, are about 500 kilometres apart. I explained that the entire South Island uses the 03 area code, but it doesn’t all work off a single telephone exchange.

They worked through this complicated concept, and arrived at the conclusion that all was in fact well, and service would be activated, albeit a week and a half late. They even told me what my new phone number would be (that it initially only worked for incoming calls is another matter).

However, a day or two later, they had changed their minds again, and it was now apparently impossible for me to get broadband on my new exchange, because said exchange was “Not capable of providing service”. To quote further from one of their numerous and seemingly uncoordinated emails: Unfortunately, no matter which internet provider you choose you won’t be able to get ADSL broadband at this time.

Which would have made more sense had I not, the following day, met a man who lives on the same road as me, is three kilometres further from the exchange, and who does have broadband… from, you guessed it, Ihug. They did offer to provide me with a dialup service – which I was already using, in order to communicate with them. Sigh again...

By this time I had come to the conclusion that not only did Ihug not know its posterior from the bend in its arm, but that its left hand didn’t know what its right hand was doing, and I had my own suspicions as to what that might be. Needless to say, my

disgust at this sort of treatment, after ten years of loyal custom, means I won’t be a customer of theirs ever again.

But I digress. I don’t blame city residents for the inconsistencies of services provided between the town and the country. I do blame their politicians. Come 2013 you can blame them too, because after then, power companies will no longer be required to maintain lines out to ‘non-profitable’ areas, i.e. anywhere where there isn’t a large fat healthy customer base. I presume this means that all power stations located in remote rural areas will be disconnected from the grid on the basis that they’re uneconomically far away…yeah right.

For this writer’s money, the last vestiges of the dismally failed free market ideology need to be pushed down the nearest long drop, and we need to rebuild the universal infrastructures which were created by generations of New Zealand taxpayers; the road, rail, power and phone networks, put in place so that the entire country could enjoy the benefits of a standard of living created in the provinces and serviced by the towns, and where no-one is more, or less, important than anyone else, just because of where they live.

If the entire country is to go ahead, then the places where the wealth is produced need to have the same access to the world as does anyone else in the Global Economy.

It is just as important for New Zealand’s primary producers and their rural communities to be connected, to the business and learning opportunities of the ‘Net, as it is for the gamers and music downloaders of the suburbs; and if our last pinko Government never appreciated that reality, then it is high time that our new centre-right administration does. What the Market doesn’t feel inclined to provide, the Government needs to legislate to make them provide, because those of us who pay the nation’s bills are getting tired of going without it.

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www.stressless.co.nz INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 21

> line one

Chris Carter

Forget ‘Crusher Collins’, meet ‘Slammer Carter’

I

n a country now well and truly under the self imposed yoke when women were meant to restrict themselves to simpering and of political correctness, surely we should all be outraged when gazing approvingly at their male bandit heroes as the guys tested rampant sexism quite plainly continues to surface even within the limits of public tolerance. You have to be kidding eh? Girls are Parliament itself. As the more observant amongst us have prob- not only real people too, they also have every right in the world ably noticed, NZ is not as yet a follower of Sharia law as prac- to expect the same attention when they decide to run wild as the tised in such peace loving nations as Saudi Arabia, therefore NZ ball carriers are currently enjoying. Probably explains why, as a women, for better or worse perhaps, may drive motor cars, as of percentage, women form such a small number of the folk curright, indeed may walk our very streets, unencumbered by the all rently in the henake! Like the only Law Enforcement Officers encompassing middle ages garb that would make getting behind that young would-be female offenders have to fear are the still the wheel pretty well impossible in any case. small number, in relative terms, of female officers out there on New Zealand was first in the world to give women the vote, the roads. Talk about Ming the Merciless, and that’s with guys, and have continued to progress women’s rights in a most laud- heaven knows how they would deal to their sisters, as opposed to able fashion. Women are in Parliament, head up innumerable the guys on the beat who tend to turn a blind eye towards drunk, Government Departments, feature admirably in our courts, the abusive and frequently very stroppy female co-pilots of the male armed services, industry and commerce, indeed even play footy, driver be he a boy or even a senior dragster whatever. drink beer and it’s rumoured can frequently shock even a wharfie Suppose it all comes down to it being incredibly difficult in this into stunned silence with landay and age to handle an guage rarely learnt at mother’s out of control female, who Why don’t we, as a totally new knee. Today, in New Zealand, according to Police mates to all intents and purposes, of mine are far more likely experience, simply enforce the laws when drunk and angry to we enjoy gender equality, now being quite happy to accept bite and scratch and whack that we already have on the books? you in the twig and berries blokey girls and girly blokes, as being very much a part of than most males, who genToo radical for you? the general population... erally are well aware that It appears, however that this they likely will get much may now no longer be the case. The thin end of the wedge became more than they dished out! quite apparent a couple of weeks back as young women were quite In any case, all of these views have come about as a result, shamelessly deprived of their hard won right to hoon and to con- through first hand observation that quite plainly there are two sets duct various acts of general lawlessness as a panic stricken edict of rules that now seem to apply in New Zealand with regard to came from Government and the Police, that BOY Racers were traffic law enforcement. If you are 35plus, of either sex, driving a shortly to become Verboten and furthermore their mobile expres- well maintained car then you are far more likely to pay your fine, sions of advanced onanism might well be turned henceforth into if pinged for any driving offence. Now it’s small wonder that our razor blades or perhaps metallic nasal ornaments. An unforgivable traffic police, who after all, despite denials to the contrary, like example of rampant sexism to say the very least, as no mention to see at least some monetary return for all their efforts, would at all of the hundreds of chicks who have invested their every cent be more than a little bit cheesed off about the nearly ¾ of a bilinto cars boasting giant turbos, super computers that control fuel lion dollars of unpaid fines, most of which are due to unpaid trafflow and race bred valve timing or the semi lethal ignition systems fic offences apparently owed, in the main, by, yep, you’ve got it, with enough power to light up a small town? young guys in very quick cars, bearing in mind that the girls, if Has all this female investment in keeping up with the boys been ticketed at all, appear much more likely to pay up. as of nothing? Is not the ultimate insult to any aspiring hoon, So here we have the almost annual hysteria re Boy racers once male or female, to be simply ignored, when the whole point of again, this time generated by the action of some Christchurch being a hoon is to annoy the hell out of boring old wrinklies and mobile hoons, leading to the totally predictable cries for the the Plods. destruction of their rides, through to more elderly talkback callAnd to think our society had progressed way beyond the time ers suggesting castration and worse. We in New Zealand must 22 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

have the world record for passing stupid legislation that by its very nature would have appealed to any of the great dictators in the thirties, that fortunately, when it’s passed, good Kiwi sense invariably prevents its widespread use. So it would be if this enormously silly idea of crushing boy racers cars ever became an enforced law. It would be the same as passing a law that said that every house involved in the selling of drugs had to be burnt down or a bulldozer run through it, much as many of us might well think both ideas are most appealing, the practical, legal and even social problems that this sort of thing would cause would very quickly become a minefield.

My argument would be this. Why don’t we, as a totally new experience, simply enforce the laws that we already have on the books? Too radical for you? The money and the effort that we’ve wasted on trying to get people to stop driving while they’re drunk. How many times have we read of offenders having been caught doing this for the 8, 9,10th time? Why? Simply because we all know that if you happen to get caught that the fine for a first offence is around five or six hundred bucks, chances are you can con the judge into a work license, and why pay the fine anyway, just add it to the $700 million everyone else owes! I’m quite sure that a wee tweak to current law could see a first time offender being arrested, and with a 24 hour night court, be sentenced and tossed in a cell for seven days easy as you like. Imagine explaining to the wife, the boss whoever, where you were going to be for the next seven days?

Wouldn’t even bother to impose a fine, just jail, but do it again, then it’s 12 months for sure, etc. etc.

Same with the Boy Racers, why complicate things, arrest them, get them in Court within 24 hours maximum, first offence fine them and then they stay in jail till the fine’s paid. Probably have most of them needing to sell their car to pay the fine, so save us the trouble in crushing them. By the way, a bit of quick maths tells me that with around a 4 million population, all the men, women and kids in this country currently owe about $170 each if we divided

up the unpaid fines between us. Heads should have rolled long ago from the tossers who let this happen. But how about a one off amnesty on all unpaid fines, then just start again where everyone in the future pays immediately before leaving court, or with mailed traffic fines, within 7 days, or into the slammer you go.

Genuine cases of hardship could still be taken into account, but with an otherwise firm rule of pay up or it’s bread and water mate, we could have these problems sorted out within 12 months. My guess, sadly, however, is that even more complicated and largely unenforceable laws will carry on being applied or put on the books, and the bulk of good, law abiding New Zealanders will continue to be laughed at by the small proportion of rat bags who know full well we lack the cajones to sort them out properly. Meantime if having really stupid anti boy racer legislation as promoted by the police head office types and a few of their tame politicians, you feel is the only way to go, then perhaps we should consider running a barbed wire fence round the whole country, because quite plainly we are all off our trolleys and need urgent confinement ourselves.

Chris Carter appears in association with www.snitch.co.nz, a must-see site.

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INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 23

INTERVIEW

Man at the Helm Prime Minister John Key steers New Zealand through uncharted waters

In any other circumstances, winning the last election would have been a dream job. But with Michael Cullen’s hospital pass of a ‘decade of deficits’, hidden overspends and a world economic collapse, the National Government is living on reserves of goodwill from a jaded public.

In this magazine’s first interview with a serving Prime Minister, IAN WISHART asks John Key what his plans really are…

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NZPA / Wayne Drought

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 25

INVESTIGATE: 100 days in power, 1000 days left in your first term kitty, how do you view progress so far?

KEY: I think progress has been very positive. We’ve committed to a 100 day program and we’ve stuck to that. And that’s an important part of demonstrating to those that supported us that we would honour our word, and we intend to continue that through the months and years ahead. The thing is, as I say, we’ve had an opportunity to take stock now of this financial position we find ourselves confronted with and it’s fair to say that it’s a difficult position. We’ll have to work hard to ensure that New Zealand comes out of this recession in a stronger position, and I’m confident that if we keep our eye on the ball we will.

INVESTIGATE: When we spoke midway through last year, you talked about some of the “toxic” instruments that were out there, obviously drawing on your banking experience, and whether those chickens were going to come home to roost. Now obviously those chickens have come home to roost and it’s a very different world from the way it was eight or nine months ago. Even Gov Bollard is hinting at some kind of financial New World Order, and I see Sarkozy in France is talking about a need for the world to embrace socialism – what is going to spring up out of this?

KEY: I think a number of risks, and potentially a number of big opportunities. On the risk front, we’ve got a situation where all of the traditional milestones and yardsticks and traditional tools we’ve used have almost been thrown out the window. We’ve got a banking system that’s not working, that’s redundant or in a severe state of disorder in the United States and Europe. You’ve got markets showing extreme signs of distress, and consumers not wanting to spend, and that’s resulting in very large job losses – particularly in Europe and the States.

So I think from New Zealand’s point of view, the good news is our banking system is still in good order, our banks were not exposed to the toxic products, and while they are having to work hard to raise capital they are continuing to do that. So I think the threats for New Zealand are very simply, we are a small open economy engaged in the world, we make a living by selling our products to consumers all around the globe, and if they have less money to spend or are less willing to travel to our shores then that has an impact on New Zealand. That said, the fundamentals that drive our economy – which are food production, tourism and Kiwi ingenuity – are still going to be very much the products in demand in the years ahead, and our smallness is, in this situation, a real advantage. So I’m actually confident that if we are careful with our policy and disciplined about what we do we can turn this into a real opportunity.

INVESTIGATE: Well, there is an inherent tension of course between looking after home and hearth – cutting spending drastically at home, reducing debts, saving more – and looking after the country’s needs by spending more so we all keep our jobs.

How should Kiwis look at this?

KEY: I think, especially from the government’s point of view, we need to get the balance right. So it’s important that we add stimulus to the economy where the private sector is backing away – and we are doing that, I mean, Treasury estimates that our stimulus programme so far puts us in the top five if not higher in the world for developed countries, so there’s no question that the government is providing a lot of stimulus into the economy whether it is our tax package or ultimately the business tax package that we’ve announced, the infrastructure package that we’ve got and various other things that we have in the pipeline.

26 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

Secondly, we have a real advantage at one level there, our interest rates were very high so they’ve had a long way to fall and that is providing a fillip to the economy, so that’s the good side of the equation. I think the thing that we have to be careful of is that we can’t saddle future generations with a massive amount of debt.

So the expenditure that we undertake to stimulate the economy which is funded off debt, has to be put into perspective of what that means for our credit rating and our future debt servicing capability. And that’s the fine balance that we walk.

INVESTIGATE: With mortgage interest rates, given that we have some of the highest deposit rates in the Western world, our banks still seem to be having difficulty attracting finance and deposits, even from offshore. Thus we are not getting necessarily the margins being passed on to the public from all the interest rate cuts.

How do we tackle that?

KEY: Well domestically those are flowing through, and you’ve seen a decent slug of the 475 basis points that the Reserve Bank cut being passed through to consumers. One of the problems we have, is that about 80% of mortgages are fixed so it takes quite some time for that to flow through unless people break their mortgages. You’re right, the big problem is in the international markets where there is just a scarcity of capital at the moment, and it’s not an issue about the quality of our banks but whether people want to have greater exposure to New Zealand. Now, we’ve had the Reserve Bank and Treasury undertake a roadshow to sell the New Zealand story, we are starting to see the credit markets open up and the banks have quite a lot of capacity, so I am confident that they will be able to raise money and that will flow through to lower borrowing costs for New Zealanders. But I think there needs to be a recognition that it’s not solely the official cash rate where banks raise their funding.

INVESTIGATE: Do you see us coming out of recession this year?

KEY: I am actually reasonably hopeful that by the latter part of 2009 will be starting to see some signs of recovery. My guess is that 2010 will be a positive year, but probably not a large up year and that will probably come in 2011. It depends a little bit on how effective these global programs of stimulation are. If the US, under Obama, can use their stimulus package to reignite the economy and the Chinese invest at the levels we think they might, then there’s a chance we’ll come out of this recession quicker than people think simply because interest rates are so low internationally that it does present some real opportunities. I suspect when the credit markets turn and become favourable again they’ll turn quite rapidly. But at this stage, this is solely an issue of confidence and confidence as you know has completely evaporated, so it’s a question of how long it takes for that confidence to re-emerge.

INVESTIGATE: What do you make though, of the calls from various world leaders – and even Kevin Rudd is suggesting similar – for almost a more socialist, a “Third Way”, state involvement in the financial markets and companies from here on in. We are talking fundamental changes to the system we’ve known for the last 80 years – is that something that you think will develop?

KEY: At the margins, there will be a need to take a step back and understand what drove the credit crunch, and what aspects of the market caused such enormous failure. And I think you can see from the leverage that was in the banking system, and the uncontrolled nature of that, they presented a systemic risk to the world’s financial system and eventually that chicken came home to roost.

So there’s just no question that there will have to be changes in

Regardless of how strong the NZ economy is, mountains of new cars and other unsaleable products are stacking up in Europe where nobody is buying. PHOTO: MaxPPP

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 27

that area. That said, it emerged first out of the United States and that’s been one of the most heavily regulated banking markets in the world, so regulations and laws are not necessarily the panacea to the problems. I think beyond the banking system though, we’ve got to be very careful that we don’t throw out the basics of capitalism – it’s a system that has worked well, individuals are driven by incentives and a desire to make a difference to their own lives.

While the government can play a role in assisting individuals to achieve greater heights, I would be very nervous about a world where we believed that it is government, and not entrepreneurs, that were going to drive a successful economy.

INVESTIGATE: Moving onto relationships with other political parties, many are calling the olive branch to the Maori party a stroke of political genius. Were you really that Machiavellian, or is it something deeper than opportunism?

KEY: My personal belief is that a lot of the fundamental principles that drive the Maori party are very similar to those that underpin the National party. I just never accepted the argument that the Maori party has greater similarity with the Labour Party.

I believe we will actually prove that over the next three years. It’s a relationship where we can work off each other, it’s got to be based on respect and a degree of trust and understanding, and like any relationship there has to be give-and-take, there can’t just be wins on one side and not on the other or vice versa. But if we are successful, and I believe we will be, I truly believe we can redefine the landscape for the way the National party is viewed and ultimately the way centre-right politics is viewed.

INVESTIGATE: After all the scare stories, both from Labour and from media commentators, how have you found Pita and Tariana to work with?

KEY: Fabulous! I mean, the relationship with both of them at a personal level is great. They are honest, straightforward people.

They tell you what they like and they tell you what they don’t like.

They are not unrealistic, and they are prepared to compromise, but they stand firm on the things that they believe in. It’s a relationship that is mana-enhancing on both sides, we try and respectfully work our way through solutions and you are already seeing, I believe, better legislation emerging from partnership.

In the end, New Zealand is a country built on consensus. People want to get on with each other, they want the best for the country, they want to get on with their neighbours, and there is a strong desire to see unity. I believe in a political sense we are starting to demonstrate New Zealanders that there is potentially a new way forward. So it is early days, and we will need to keep working on it, but I see it certainly is a very important relationship – as I do with our relationship with the Act Party and United Future. They both bring different things to the table but nevertheless ultimately produce better government.

INVESTIGATE: How have you found Sir Roger Douglas to work with?

KEY:Well I haven’t had a lot of engagement with him personally yet. Roger is a guy that’s got some very good ideas, and some ideas that I don’t agree with. There’s nothing wrong with that, I think parliament is stronger with the fact that we have people who are prepared to present their own ideas and challenge the thinking of those who are making the rules.

INVESTIGATE: Do you think that perhaps in the past, coalition arrangements and discussions have been coloured too much – perhaps driven by the media – by an expectation that everyone should throw their toys out of the cot if they have a problem? It 28 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

seems to me that what you are really saying is that you can live with the different extremes that you’ve been dealt, as long as everybody knows that you just have to work your way through it. Is that really what you’re saying?

KEY: Totally. I think if you look at the coalition confidence and supply agreements that we have with our partners, they are not highly prescriptive for a reason – and that is that they allow flexibility in the system. When there is rigidity, it doesn’t work because you suffocate your partners. Inevitably, they end up getting to a point where they just end up disappointing their supporters, or you disappoint yours, and it becomes a situation where there are no winners. Whereas if you give everyone a little bit of space, recognising that they have the clear ability to agree or disagree, that doesn’t mean that the relationship is not just as strong – it just means that on that particular issue you have a difference of opinion. I suspect over the next three years there will be quite a number of things where either the Maori party or United or Act won’t agree with the government, it doesn’t mean that our relationship won’t be a strong one it simply means that on that particular issue we have a different set of priorities.

INVESTIGATE: Looking across the benches, Nandor Tanczos has joined a growing chorus of people accusing the Green party of losing its way and, some would say, maybe becoming mired in the hard left at the expense of environmentalism, and this prevented any rapprochement with National. What is your analysis of that?

KEY: I agree with him. I think Nandor correctly assessed that a lot of the support of the Green party comes from the environmental side, not their social engineering and social justice policies.

From an environmental perspective, I’d argue very strongly that National has just as strong a focus on the environment as Labour ever had. And from that point of view, what the results on election night show you is that despite the fact that they had an outgoing tide on Labour and a strong poll rating going into the election the Greens could not translate it to a higher vote.

So I do think they need to think their strategy through about what it is they stand for, who they are looking to attract, and what sort of future relationships they want to have because, again, it might be a different relationship to the one the Maori party has with us or that Act has with us, but it is possible to the Greens and National to work together in some form of agreement, as tangential as it might be, and for them to potentially get the sort of outcomes that they might want.

INVESTIGATE: So are you saying that in their current form as a hard left Green party, that there is a place? Or are you saying you would prefer a German style environmental Green party to work with?

KEY: I think the latter. Ultimately, if they are going to define themselves solely on social justice issues then they will probably always find more favour with Labour than with National. But I would have thought there is a huge opportunity for a very strong environmental party – this is a country that cares a lot about the environment, and as you see in Germany where the Greens oscillate a lot between the centre-left and centre-right the Greens have been highly effective for the primary concerns of their core supporters.

INVESTIGATE: On the subject of Fiji, obviously you and Frank Bainimarama have not cracked open a beer together for a while?

KEY: No we haven’t had a Fiji Bitter for a while. From our point of view, we wish no ill on Frank Bainimarama personally,

it’s just that we wish to see a restoration of democracy in Fiji. It’s an economy where we need to see progress in Fiji, we need to be on a pathway to democracy so that investment can return to Fiji and opportunities can return. He’s had two years now to resolve that position but we haven’t seen any dedicated signs that he is intent on doing that. In fact, if anything, it looks as if the regime is becoming even more entrenched rather than more willing to engage in democracy, and that is of concern to the Pacific simply because it is an instability we cannot afford.

INVESTIGATE: At the risk of playing devil’s advocate, there are a lot of people in New Zealand who don’t share the bipartisan view of Labour and National about the legitimacy of Bainimarama’s coup. The idea has taken hold that the colonel was trying to stick up for the rights of Fiji Indians, while the previous corrupt government was selling them down the river, and that New Zealand and Australia simply don’t understand the dynamics of what’s been taking place over there. Do you accept that?

KEY: Well I accept that he may have some valid concerns, and there probably is a need to make change to the constitution and the electoral system.

No one is arguing that, what we are saying is do the means justify the end?

And in our case, we think it doesn’t because of the instability it creates and the damage it does to the economy and the way the country is perceived. All of that is now water under the bridge, the coup has taken place and Frank Bainimarama is in the position he’s in, but it is not too late. There is now an opportunity for him to spell out their new constitution and new electoral system, to get some support from the other parties in Fiji and to hold elections. But the future for Fiji can’t be that they’re going to hold a coup every five years or the country is never going to go forward.

INVESTIGATE: I’m just thinking of an e-mail I got from a Fijian businessman the other day, and he was making the point that if an election was held this year the same corrupt forces that were behind the last government would simply buy the election again, and that is part of the reason it is taking so long to work through, because they’re all trying to figure out a way of holding a genuinely democratic and open fair election without it being bought off. If Fiji was to come to you and say right, we’ll give New Zealand a private briefing on what our concerns are, are you open to that?

KEY: We’ve always said we are willing to engage in the process, and we’ve offered support to Fiji for holding those elections, we’ve offered support in terms of trying to work through a better system. The ministerial contact group that spent quite a

“From an environmental perspective, I’d argue very strongly that National has just as strong a focus on the environment as Labour ever had.

And from that point of view, what the results on election night show you is that despite the fact that they had an outgoing tide on Labour and a strong poll rating going into the election the Greens could not translate it to a higher vote” INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 29

lot of time looking at that position in Fiji before it reported to the Pacific Islands Forum included Murray McCully, our foreign affairs Minister, so we acknowledge that there are issues there that need to be resolved and we are happy to work with Fiji to resolve those. But we have to see some signs of progress and at this stage were not seeing any of those.

INVESTIGATE: Frank called it a ‘virtual declaration of war’, but given the state of New Zealand’s armed services – the mothballed Skyhawks, the army and navy – are you confident we can repel a Fijian invasion?

KEY: (chuckles), Yeah I didn’t quite see it on the same terms, but certainly we are a little tied up at the moment.

INVESTIGATE: On climate change, I know all the government bodies and NGOs are telling us the science is settled, but there is now fast becoming an open revolt in the scientific community about whether humans are contributing significantly to global warming at all. Given the huge sums of public money involved, and I see that the IEA (International Energy Agency) are suggesting that US$45 trillion will have to be spent between now and 2050 on carbon trading and the rest of it, what care is being taken to ensure that climate change theory is accurate and how is New Zealand going to be affected if it is wrong?

KEY: From New Zealand’s point of view, we are trying to put in place a set of rules that give us the most flexibility while demonstrating that we are prepared to play our part in tackling climate change as a global issue. The select committee that has been set up, that will review our ETS legislation and come up with recommendations for potential changes, is going to look closely at the response that New Zealand should have. My view is that we want to see that legislation settled as quickly as possible, and certainly by the end of September 2009, because I think we need to put certainty back into the economy and for those who invest in the economy.

The important point here is that we have flexibility built into the system so that if the science either firms up considerably more or deteriorates, and the climate change sceptics are right, we have an ability to alter the impact on our economy. But at this stage I think it would be irresponsible of us not to play our part when it comes to climate change, but nor do I believe that we should be prepared to completely sacrifice our economy in the name of climate change when other countries are just not prepared to do that. If you look at Australia, they’ve now said they are willing to support a 5% reduction in Copenhagen for Annex one countries when people have been talking about a reduction of 25 to 40%.

INVESTIGATE: The Serious Fraud Office is back in business, have you given any thought seeing that New Zealand has never had a commission of inquiry into the police, unlike other Western nations, have you given any thought to turning the SFO into an ICAC – an Independent Commission Against Corruption – to act as a check and balance?

KEY: At this point we haven’t. The whole principle of having a commission into that kind of behaviour was, funnily enough, a policy of New Zealand First which was deeply ironic if you consider it, but look, at the moment the SFO is a small organisation in New Zealand and has less than 40 staff and a relatively small budget. Over time we need to consider its reach and capability but we haven’t given any further consideration to that at this point.

INVESTIGATE: Given the issues that National has seen through the police and the previous government and the issues that have arisen, do you see that there are some concerns that could do 30 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

with some sober thought over the next few months to make sure the proper checks and balances are in there?

KEY: Yes, I think it’s a serious issue, and the whole issue of how we deal with fraud of that nature and organised crime is something that is exercising the government’s mind. There are a number of initiatives on the go and when we’ve had a chance to get our feet more fully under the table it’s something we might reflect more fully on, but this stage we are focusing on quite a number of other aspects of the justice system.

INVESTIGATE: How have your first three months in office been, given that the public service was stacked with Labour appointees for the past nine years, and I’m sure there will be ongoing issues there, but you’ve managed to hit the ground running – how has the transition been and what has it been like as a first-time Prime Minister going through that?

KEY: Frantic, at one level, which is that there’s just so much to do and so little time to achieve it in.

But there has been a strong buy in from the chief executives of the state sector to get on board with the new government’s programme, and a real willingness to buy into the programme. Over the next nine months we have some big decisions to be made and some real challenges in front of us, it does not make it easier that we are trying to do those things on the backdrop of a very weak global economy. So from that perspective there are plenty of challenges there, and probably the hard yards lie in front of us.

After nine years of Labour, I think there was a strong feeling even within the state sector that it was time for a change and there were new and creative ways of doing things. At this stage the bureaucracy seems to be responding pretty well to that.

INVESTIGATE: In terms of your own personal life, you thought life was pretty busy as an opposition leader, you are a one armed paper hanger literally – KEY: Yeah literally. Look at one level it’s a remarkable privilege to be Prime Minister, and you have the capacity to do things and it is magnificent. You get to make decisions and engage with New Zealanders and see some fantastic things, but on the other side of the coin it comes with a lot of responsibility and that meant a lot of hard work. But in reality, you are not here as prime minister forever, by any stretch of the imagination, and you have to work hard to keep faith with those who put you there. My view

Photo Pool/Anwar Hussein Collection/WENN

is that if you lose perspective on why you were elected and what you are there to do then you are on the way out. We’d like to be a long-term government and a successful government, so we will stay focused on the issues that matter.

INVESTIGATE: How are your family taking the pressures that you are under now?

KEY: Generally pretty good. I’m obviously away a lot more, and much more high profile than you are as leader of the opposition, and so inevitably that has an impact on the kids and the way things play out for them at school or whatever, but by and large it’s worked pretty well. Having security around you all the time is a bit of a handbrake from time to time, you have to organise things and it is a little bit more cumbersome, but broadly speaking it’s fantastic.

INVESTIGATE: Just finally the recent announcement of support for Helen Clark’s bid for a UN job, some would call that cruel and unusual punishment under the Geneva Convention for the rest of the world, was this a case of she is the right person for the

job or did you just want her out of the country?

KEY: (chuckles), Look I’ve taken the view that New Zealand prime ministers are a small group and, love or hate the policies, to get there they are usually talented individuals. In Helen’s case it has been a lifelong ambition for her to have a senior job in the UN and on that basis it seems only appropriate that we would support her to do that in the same way that Don McKinnon was supported or that Mike Moore was supported for the WTO. Whenever a Kiwi is strutting their stuff on the world stage and doing well I’m proud of that irrelevant of their political beliefs, so in that regard I am happy to support her.

INVESTIGATE: Have you spoken to her at all since the New Year?

KEY: I’ve spoken to her quite a lot because we’ve been working back and forth on her potential candidacy and appointment to the UN, so it’s very early days at this stage and it’s hard to know whether she will be successful or not – by definition it’s a deeply political process and it is a senior role so it will be hotly contested – but for her sake I hope she is. n INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 31

treelords:

show us the evidence

Was the Kaingaroa Forest settlement a $500 million bribe?

Challenged under the Official Information Act to produce evidence of “injustices” over the original sale of the Kaingaroa Forest, Labour’s Treaty Negotiations Minister Michael Cullen made an extraordinary admission in writing on the eve of last year’s election: “the information does not exist”.

It now appears Labour handed over a $500 million publicly-owned forest in a cynical (and ultimately failed) ploy to buy Maori votes, without any hard evidence to justify the Treaty deal. ROSS BAKER has the incredible story

32 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 33

W

hen the ink was signed on the Kaingaroa Forest Treaty Deal late last year, few New Zealanders were aware that the Labour Government had been unable to find any documents under the Official Information Act that backed up its reason for giving the forest to the Te Arawa tribe.

Forget the $800,000 pledge card overspending – there’s growing suspicion Helen Clark and Michael Cullen effectively took half a billion dollars of taxpayer funds, without legal cause.

In the 1850/60s it was found that the Kaingaroa Plains were uneconomical for planting in pasture and grazing stock, as they lacked the mineral cobalt, and stock became ill with “bush sickness”. The only use for this vast area of land was to grow radiata pine trees. But the cost to plant trees and wait 25 years for a return could only be achieved by the Government. It was agreed by both parties that the Crown should purchase the land, which would give the Maori owners instant cash to develop their other lands, purchasing more fertile land, and would create hundreds of jobs for them and others over the years in planting, maintaining and milling the forests. The Crown paid 15,000 pounds for the 120,000 acres, a good price for very poor land at the time.

Since then, the people of New Zealand have planted, maintained and milled millions and millions of trees in the Kaingaroa to create one of the largest man-made forests in the world for present and future New Zealanders to enjoy and reap its benefits. (Refer,Why the Kaingaroa Forest isn’t grassland by Miles Baker).

On 1 April 2008, the One New Zealand Foundation wrote to the Minister in Charge of Treaty Negotiations, the Hon Dr Michael Cullen, asking him for an update on negotiations between the Crown and the Central North Island Collective (the majority of iwi with interests in the Kaingaroa Forest) with regard to the settlements of their Treaty of Waitangi claim.

On 23 April 2008, the Minister replied, “I received a proposal by the Collective which sets out the process by which they have the majority of licensed Crown forest land in the central North Island returned to them. I am satisfied that there is ample evidence that Crown actions and omissions towards the iwi represented by the Collective breaches the Treaty of Waitangi. It is for that reason that the Government is prepared to enter discussions with the Collective in the relation to the settlement of their historic claim”.

On 15 July 2008, the Foundation again wrote to the Minister informing him that from the documentary evidence available, the Kaingaroa Plains were sold “legally and morally” to the Crown in 1880 on a “willing seller/willing buyer” basis. The tribes involved at the time of the sale were completely satisfied with the lands sold and monies received, which they then shared amongst themselves. Under the Official Information Act, the Foundation then asked “What was the supposed injustice/s associated with this sale that have (sic) led the Crown paying out $500 million of taxpayer money to the tribes?”

On 15 October 2008, the One New Zealand Foundation received the following reply from the Minister. “I am writing to inform you that your request under the Official Information Act 1982 is not specific enough and that your request is being refused under section 18(e) of the Official Information Act 1982 as the document alleged to contain the information does not exist. The Government accepts that those Central North Island groups covered by the Collective settlement over the Central North Island Crown Forest License lands, have legitimate claims against the Crown, and that it is appropri34 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

ate that the Kaingaroa Forest be returned through that settlement as redress for those claims”.

Returned? The forest itself never belonged to Te Arawa, but was planted by the Crown, more specifically, the State Forest Service.

Nevertheless, the then minister, Dr Michael Cullen, stated that our request was “not specific enough”, and therefore refused to supply the requested information... But he added the extraordinary comment that: “The document alleged to contain the information does not exist.”

The reality of the situation is that the Crown, on the face of it, has no documented evidence to substantiate the supposed injustice/s associated with this sale, leading to the Crown paying out $500 million of taxpayers’ money, including the Kaingaroa Forset to the Central North Island tribes in their apparently opportunistic groups claims against the Crown”.

On the 20 August 2008, the One New Zealand Foundation wrote to the Minister asking him, under the Official Information Act, for “A copy of the Kaingaroa Land Sale Agreement and Deed between Chief Peraniko and the Crown in 1880”. On the 12 September 2008, the Minister sent a copy of the “legal” Sale Agreement and Deed showing, “the Kaingaroa plains were “legally and morally” purchased by the Crown on a “willing seller/willing buyer” basis on the 8 December 1880”.

From the written and verified account by Captain Gilbert Mair below, the old Chief Peraniko, who had died two years before Captain Mair could return to Galetea to pay him and his tribes for the Kaingaroa Plains, “was exhumed for the grand occasion”.

From the gifts offered to Captain Mair and other Crown officials present, there is no denying the tribes at the time were completely satisfied with the land sold and the monies received. This article from Captain Gilbert Mair, who negotiated the purchase and paid the money, was sent to the Hon Dr Michael Cullen. But he completely ignored it.

As all the evidence shows this land was purchased on a “willing seller/willing buyer” basis, why is the Crown handing over one of our most valuable assets, the Kaingaroa State Forest, to the Central North Island Collective tribes, when the information to substantiate this claim, as with the Te Roroa claim and possibly many others, “does not exist” – and there is no evidence it ever has existed?

KAINGAROA – ITS PASSING TO THE CROWN CHIEF PERANIKO’S BODY EXHUMED TO RECEIVE PAYMENT

The fascinating letter below from the man who purchased the land for the Crown, Captain Gilbert Mair gives an authentic account of the tribes’ willing acceptance of Kaingaroa’s passing to the Crown in 1879.

Tauranga.

February 26, 1923 My Dear Mr Goudie, I hope you will live long enough to see Kaingaroa grow as I prophesy into one of the finest artificial forests in the Dominion, and trust that in time it will be extended north easterly to the Rangitaiki River where the land though more broken, with probably much deeper deposit of ash of clinker, effected from Tarawera in 1886 was, as I first remember it, infinitely better soil.

I am enclosing you a couple of copies of an article entitled, “Kaingaroa, Its Passing to the Crown”, which I wrote for the Auckland Star

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 35

Supplement. I had to cut out a quantity of the legendary parts being confined to single column article. The Star proprietors allowed me three columns on their account of the unique function therein detail, “The Resumption of Peraniko”.

No such honour has ever been paid to another European. A personal tribute of affection, resulting from joint services in the field and unremitting kindness and consideration offered cheerfully and willingly in so far as in one law.

I attach a second article relating to the “The Preservation Properties of Pumice” of which I have seen many instances.

With all good wishes and down with the mischievous deer Faithfully Yours, Gilbert Mair.

(The ONZF has on file a copy of the original hand-written letter and article from Gilbert Mair).

KAINGAROA – ITS PASSING TO THE CROWN “THE STORY OF PERANIKO’S TANGI”

(By Capt. Gilbert Mair NZC) The great prairie of the North Island, the Kaingaroa Plain, extending for nearly a hundred miles north and south, is not without its folk-lore and history for all its unpeopled and monotonous character. Its story goes far back into the centuries; it is six hundred years since the wizard-like Ngatoro-i-rangi, the high Priest of the Arawa canoe, explored this broad backbone of the island and bestowed place names as far south as the great volcanoes of the Tongariro Country.

Some day the whole of this vast level expanse of territory will be put to profitable use: already the northern and western part becoming a new forest.

Our State Forest Service has already planted many millions of choice trees, which are showing phenomenal growth, Kaingaroa bids to become the most famous artificial forest in the Dominion and will require a special railway line to convey the timber output to market.

From time immemorial, the Kaingaroa prairie has been claimed and used for bird hunting by numerous aboriginal tribes bearing the euphonious names of Te Kawerau, Ngaiwi, Te Aruhetawiri, Ngararauhemamae Te Heke o Maruiwi, Te Raupongaoheohe (the waving bulrushes) Te Turururumouku etc., but they were inoffensive people, and when twelve or thirteen generations ago, the more strenuous warlike descendants of those who arrived in the great canoes came from northward under the leadership of two warriors Manawa Kotokoto and his nephew Wharepakau, the original dwellers were destroyed or driven elsewhere towards the south and the whole of the vast territory became the property of the two small tribes, Ngatimanawa and Ngatiwhare, who through relationship with the Arawa and Urewera tribes became a buffer. This country they were still holding at the execution of the Treaty of Waitangi and when the Maori king was set up in 1860. Ngatimanawa joined the loyal Arawa and the others went into rebellion. The Ngatimanawa became conspicuous on account on their single hearted devotion to the Crown, fighting against their near relatives and, though never able to place more than half a hundred men in the field, many of the women bore guns with good effect. They did such fine service scouting and fighting and were always in the advance, so they were named, “Mair’s Forty Thieves”. I was authorised to pay them a bonus of 2/ per diem on the quiet.

36 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

In 1820, a taua toto (a blood party) under the renown Hauraki chief Tuterangianini, passed southward over it, intending to attack some of the tribes further on, but the outlook was discouraging, and on viewing the abnormally large cabbage trees which are said to have been planted by Ngatoroirangi to show his two sisters how far he could jump, Tuterangianini named the largest one after a hereditary enemy, cursed it and ordered his warriors to chop it down, then resumed his march homeward quite satisfied with his proof of his prowess. The second tree, though not as large, was such a prominent object on the great level expanse, that when riding or walking it took an interminable time to pass it, hence the travellers averred that it really moved along abreast with them.

There are many names connecting this plain with Ngatoroirangi’s famous vestal sisters, Kuiwai and Haungaroa, such as Te Wairapukao, where the women searched all night for their lost kit of kaki (preserved kumura). Te Punatakaki, where Ngatoroirangi caused a spring to burst forth to save his fainting sisters aforesaid, like Moses and the rock.

When walking over Kaingaroa for the first time in 1866, I turned off to view the stump of the tree destroyed by Tuterangianini forty-six years previously. There was a solid rim of green bark about 11ft across, with small trees growing out of it at intervals.

The companion tree was cut down by the men engaged in surveying the block in the seventies. Looking southward as you travelled along the Rotorua-Murupara road there is a mound just to the right of the 33 mile peg named, “Te Upoko o Po” (The head of the night). It was densely covered by convolvulus and wild pigs were always found there in consequence. When viewed from the north fifteen miles away it loomed up like a mountain, yet it was only twelve or fifteen feet above the surrounding level.

When I first travelled over Kaingaroa it was deep in Karetu, the native vernal (Iliroeloe redolens), and other valuable feed grasses; you could not find a switch to whip your horse. But constant burning off has depreciated the soil seriously, and now it is covered with ti-tree and dracophyllum only.

THE CESSION OF KAINGAROA Of all the striking episodes in which I have had the good fortune to participate during a long and strenuous life, the buying of Kaingaroa stands out in a stronger light than any other of my official acts. In 1877, the Government having expressed a wish to buy Kaingaroa, I was authorised to carry out the survey, which was done accordingly. The paramount chief of Ngati Manawa,

“The reality of the situation is that the Crown, on the face of it, has no documented evidence to substantiate the supposed injustice/s associated with this sale, leading to the Crown paying out $500 million of taxpayers’ money, including the Kaingaroa Forset to the Central North Island tribes in their apparently opportunistic groups claims against the Crown” INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 37

Peraniko Tahawai, guided the surveyor and myself round the boundaries. In 1879 the block, estimated to contain 120,000 acres, was bought before the native land Court, when in spite of bitter opposition from neighbouring tribes, it was finally awarded to the Ngati Manawa, but before I could carry out the purchase, I was appointed Land Purchase Officer at Whanganui.

The affection of my noble and devoted old friend Peraniko was quite a pathetic obsession. Though over 70, he insisted on accompanying me on all my military expeditions, and the moment his quick eye noted suspicious signs of the enemies vicinity he would spring in front and whisper, “No bullet shall harm my tamaiti without passing thought my body first”. His good old wife was equally devoted, and two of their children had been baptised Te Mea and Riripeti, (Elizabeth) after my parents.

It was a sad parting when I left for my new sphere of action, as the dear old chief seemed to be dying of tuberculosis. Very soon, very pathetic messages kept arriving from the tribe employing me to hasten back, while his son-in-law Waretini actually travelled to Wanganui to persuade me to return. He afterwards adopted the name of “Ngawaea” (the telegrams), but I had nine survey parties out in the fields, which it was impossible to leave, and finally news came of Peraniko’s death.

I was notified by his people that all funeral ceremonies had been postponed until I could return, and so it came about that my faithful old friend had lain in his grave a years and eleven months ere I was free. I immediately informed the Ngati-Manawa tribe that I would reach Galatea on a certain day, bearing with me the purchased money for Kaingaroa, about 15,000 pounds.

As requested, they sent me my pet orderly, Pani Ahuriri, to meet me at Tauranga. My honoured friend, the late Judge Brabant, had arranged that the payment was to be made in cash, mainly Bank of New Zealand books of 100 single notes and some larger denominations. Owing to leakage, it became known in Tauranga, where there happened to be some undesirable characters, that I was leaving with this large sum of money and the police warned me of the risk. My Maori lad had his calisher and Terry carbine and a revolver, while I carried two heavy Deam and Adams. On reaching Maketu the landlord, Duncan Robertson informed me that three suspicious characters had spent the night there and had been inquiring which road I generally travelled when going to Galatea. So I changed my route and followed the old war trail via Kaiwhatiwhati. Several days afterwards the natives reported having found these three ruffians had been camping in the thick scrub overlooking the narrow crossing Pokario River, evidently waiting for me. I carried the money in a heavy satchel.

On the appointed morning, a mounted escort met us at Ngatamawahine River, informing me that several thousand natives had assembled and I was to be accorded a reception quite unique in modern times, which somewhat aroused my curiosity, but they would not enlighten me further than that Ngati Manawa had determined to make the function memorable on account of my regard for the old chief.

As we approached Galatea, the scene reminded me of a new goldfield rush; the place was endowed with greenery, flags everywhere; over a hundred tents and marques lined both sides of the marae, with the fine carved house, “Tangiharuru” at the end of the square. Our horses having been taken, we advanced with the escort, ushered in by the firing of volleys, hundred of women waving the white plumes of the kakaho and crying out the ancient welcome, “Haria mai te aroho”, etc. (Bring hither the love).

38 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

In front of the house knelt the different tribal matuas – solid phalanxes of stripped armed men, who sprang to their feet in rotation and performed the weird thrilling peruperus (war dances) finally coalescing in a body of 800 men in one grand finale. Then the heart-moving strains of the “Tangi” burst forth from over three thousand voices.

THE RESSURECTION ON PERANIKO TAHAWAI Lifting up my eyes to the front of the carved house, imagine my feelings on being confronted with my deceased friend Peraniko, who had been exhumed from the grave wherein he had laid for two years. The body had been carefully washed; his jet-black hair, which had grown very long, oiled and ornamented with rare plumes of the huia and white crane. He was seated on a high structure plentifully adorned with choice mats, while his cold hand still grasped the family talisman, a greenstone mere. Death had wrought no change, nor was there, the slightest odour. He had always been remarkable during life for his high complexion, rivalling that of a half caste, and it still appeared perfectly natural, except for the slight dark rings under his eyes, which were closed as though asleep. At his feet was the faithful widow bowed in an agony of grief, and the children. Hatless and with bowed head, I stood for nearly three hours, deeply moved by the affecting strains of the “tangi”.

Some of the visitors, less closely related, had resumed their seats and low sympathetic murmurs reached my ears: “Kati ra Kua ea te mate o to matua ka mate koe” (“Cease to mourn, the sorrow for your parent has been assuaged” etc, etc) According to Maori etiquette, I had to assume indignation at these interruptions and speaking sternly I replied, “Who are you that you should dare to measure my tears for my parent”.

I then went forward and pressed noses affectionately with the widow and the fatherless ones and hung the leather satchel with the 15,000 pounds about her neck which she retained until it was required for distribution. Mats were laid out in the marae and a seat where I sat and listened to numberless eloquent speeches from notable Maori orators, wherein the virtues of my deceased chief were extolled, also “his great love for me”; that his “mana” was so great that for a long time he had kept the King of Terrors at bay in the hope of meeting me again in the flesh, but as that was not to be, his body had been miraculously preserved, as all present could testify, concluding with the words, “Surely, this should lessen your sorrow”. .

Then followed a feast on a gargantuan scale, Tangaroa, the Polynesian Neptune, had been placed under heavy contributions, and all his spoils brought to the marae. The Rangitiki River had given forth its famous eels in great profusion, and Tanemahuta, the Forest God, had unstintingly yielded the feathered creatures of his domain. A number of European traders had their marques full of delicacies of all kinds, silk blouses and all other treasures to tempt the female vanity.

A the conclusion of the feast, hakas and dances were carried on until midnight when I was invited to join a small party of elders to carry my old friend away and buried him temporarily to await final interment on the sacred mountain Tawhiuau. The following morning I read over the Deed of Cession, explaining at great length its irrevocable nature. I reminded the tribe of the ancestral name of Ka-ingaroa (the long enduring home), whereas if they accepted the money I had bought, it would henceforth be called Kaingapoto, (the quickly vanishing wealth). This saying of mine has since

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 39

become a proverb for all large land sales in the Bay of Plenty.

To facilitate the sale, although the sale had been awarded to 120 persons, it was mutually agreed in open court that only 20 representative persons should be placed on the certificate, each one a representative of his or her relatives of the 120. I strongly urged them to make adequate reserves, and eventually 1700 acres and three small totara bushes were cut out, and it’s on one of these that the carved house and largest village now stand.

A select committee was occupied two days and night preparing a scheme of division of the money, there being no less than eight ancestors who originally claimed the land.

The list was read out from time to time till on the third day, consent was unanimous and it was nailed on front of Tangiharuru. Minor lists were made also for the distribution under each of the 20 representatives and apportionment of a thousand pounds for the visitors.

the token, and feared lest the others would hear of their niggardliness. The total offered gifts must have exceeded 600 pounds.

I mention these incidents to disprove the oft-repeated statement made by ignorant Europeans that the Maori has no such thing as gratitude, or any word representing thanks. Quite a mistake, for when giving a Maori a present he shows his appreciation by his countenance, repeating little, not unmusical, grunts and sounds, muttering, “E toku ariki, nui atu toku, whakawhetai ki akoe. Kia Ora Koe”, etc. (O, my lord, great is my aroha for you, may you live forever, etc).

Then again the Maoris are accused of want of constancy – another mistake, for during my long life among them I have seen many instances of the most tender affection existing between married couples. Quite frequently if one dies, the survivor never remarries. The last and most touching instance of never dying love was shown by dear old widow Ruihi. For eleven long years, regardless of the weather, she came every morning from the village at Awangarara to weep over her husband’s grave, and when the tribe removed to their present Kainga, she remained nearby the grave till death claimed her.

Of the thousands of natives then present, probably barely a hundred are still living, and of the many Europeans, who were with me, only two, Mr William Bird of Galatea, and Mr Joe McCrae of Taneatua, remain. I have just received letters corroborating the above historic incident.

Captain Gilbert Mair. (NZC)

“I then went forward and pressed noses affectionately with the widow and the fatherless ones and hung the leather satchel with the 15,000 pounds about her neck which she retained until it was required for distribution. Mats were laid out in the marae and a seat where I sat and listened to numberless eloquent speeches from notable Maori orators”

THE GRATITUDE OF THE MAORIS My friend, Henry Mitchell, the surveyor, and Captain Way, JP, were in attendance, one to mark out the reserves, the other to attest the signatures and payment.

We three were seated in the marae watching the division of the money when two of Peraniko’s children came forward bearing three split sticks, one with a book containing 100 single bank notes, which he stuck in the ground before me, the others containing 50 pounds each, were given to my two companions. It devolved upon me to act and after discussion with Mr Mitchell, who was well acquainted with Maori custom, I took a single note from each parcel, and waving these high exclaimed: “You tell us these gifts represent the tears we have shed for our parent Peraniko”. I say ‘No’. Our tears are not purchasable. They have already been poured out to fertilise the lands of your ancestors which have this day passed for ever to the Queen that it may in future bring forth its fruits in great abundance. As for this money, I have held it in my hands fast, I have consumed it, it now rests in Te Poho-nuia- Toi (the great stomach of Toi). I then took the money back, which was returned again and again, till I closed the incident by going for a walk. I gave each of my companions a single pound, but the attesting officer looked rather disgusted and considered I had paid far too much importance to native etiquette, but the Maori esteemed one all the more for so doing.

After the purchase money as finally distributed, every owner came singly or in family groups bringing gifts of money. For instance, Peraniko’s brother, Rawiri, and his large family were grieved almost to anger because I positively refused their gift of 120 pounds brought to my bedside at midnight, their excuse for coming at such a inopportune hour, they were (whakama) ashamed of the smallness of 40 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

In light of this evidence, isn’t it high time for the Crown to explain why a fair payment made at the time of the sale of Kaingaroa to the Crown is now being ignored – to the tune of $500 million.?

Kaingaroa Forest was planted by the State Forest Service for the people of New Zealand. Its present claimants have no right to claim it – and the Government has no right to surrender it.

What was barren, uneconomical wasteland when purchased by the Crown in 1880 is today a jewel in our Crown.

THE DEAL • The Central North Island Collective settlement is worth $500 million to Te Arawa and Tuwharetoa tribes.

• It takes in 179,000ha of the Kaingaroa Forest and its continuing profits.

• It includes $40 million of carbon credits and their continuing profits.

• A forestry management company will be formed to manage the lands and title will transfer to individual iwi after 35 years. n

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Lipstick Soldiers

A lesson for the NZ and Australian military, from Britain

T

he defence policies of the New Labour Government which took over in Britain in 1997 have worthily upheld that government’s record and tradition in almost every other area of disgrace and disaster. The record of the ex-1960s radicals who moved into the Treasury benches then has been so dire, and so strategically-targetted in its destructiveness that it is impossible to believe that much of it can be anything but deliberate.

Defence policies have shared the administration’s prevailing characteristic of schizophrenia. One the one hand, it has committed troops to the largest number of campaigns for more than 50 years. On the other, it has both starved them of equipment and support, and encouraged a culture of left-liberalism and political correctness which treats them and their values with contempt.

A junior Defence Minister, Peter Kilfoyle, resigned, apparently over revealed shortcomings of the Defence forces and was replaced

by Lewis Moonie, who had previously suggested that young men enlisted in the forces because they had personality disorders. Peter Mandelson, as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and then one of the most senior and influential figures in the Blair Government, speaking to an Irish radio audience in March, 2000, ridiculed the Household Division as: “you know, lots of chinless wonders with bright scarlet uniforms, you know, playing and marching around

... sort of swopping colours and doing things with flags.” Hundreds of British servicemen, including many members of the Household Division, had been murdered while on duty in Northern Ireland.

When, in one-more-than-usuallydemented moment, Hitler insulted the courage of the Liebstandarte Division, its officers returned their medals to him in a chamber-pot. More appropriately to British traditions, Bruce Anderson commented that as “contemptible” did not seem strong enough to describe Mr Mandelson’s comments, so “courage” and “sacrifice” seemed equally insufficient for the Guards. No grandeur of language would adequately write those regiments’ histories, best appreciated not through words but amid the fifes and drums, with the blue and scarlet and gold glory of the Colours paraded and saluted. These Colours, he said, were interwoven with the regiments’ battle honours, won at some of the proudest and most desperate moments in the country’s history, paid for in heroism and in blood. He continued that it would be about as much use explaining “battle honours” to Peter Mandelson as it would be explaining Titian to a man who had been blind from birth: “Any such statement invites only one conclusion: that its author must dislike Great Britain very much indeed ... he cannot wait for the day that the British history which he finds so alien joins Labour’s history in the skip,” exclaimed Anderson.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but an equal opportunities navy has produced sailors too scared to shoot, and soldiers too soft to win, writes HAL G.P. COLEBATCH

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 43

Speaking on Channel 4 at the end of 2001, Mr Mandelson suggested the IRA should be classified as “freedom fighters.” In March, 2000, Keith Vaz, Minister for Europe, linked the Parachute Regiment to Right-wing extremism. The then Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, let this pass without demure. Showing a more militaristic side in March, 2002, Mr Hoon spoke of the Government’s willingness to use nuclear weapons “in the right conditions” against “states of concern” – Iraq, Iran, Libya and North Korea.

He appeared to imply that he was referring to first-strike use.

It was reported in October, 2000, that to save about £100,000 the allowances of gardeners tending British war cemeteries overseas would be cut. Since even senior gardeners had incredibly low salaries already (About £13,000 maximum), many would not be able to continue and many war cemeteries in France and elsewhere could be expected to become overgrown and neglected. Actress Dame Thora Hird wrote of visiting No. 10 Downing Street in September, 1999, when New Labour was stll relatively new: “Cherie was there to welcome us ... She showed us how the pictures of generals and battles and “other dull things” have all gone and been replaced by a huge portrait of the ballerina Darcey Bussell, in pink and yellow ...”

I

t was announced in deference to political correctness and as a blow to the Navy’s traditional ethos that Muslim women in the Navy could wear veils over their faces in naval uniform. In Turkey and Pakistan female naval personnel do not wear veils. Orders might not be heard and understood correctly, and it would be rather easier for impostors or saboteurs to enter high-security areas.

The problems of discipline associated with open sexual liaisons between serving personnel, possibly of different ranks, were apparently not considered important compared to the absolute goal of having women serve at sea and in front-line units. Or rather, such liaisons would probably be welcomed in certain areas precisely because of their impact on discipline and on the armed forces’ traditional ethos. Both the British and American Navies had already had major problems with female personnel serving at sea in intimate physical situations, with women becoming pregnant and families broken up. The US carrier Eisenhower took its first major deployment of 415 women in 1994-95; 40 became pregnant during the first six months. The US Navy’s official response was to forbid commanding officers to complain about this. In February, 2001, it was reported that of 35 females aboard HMS Sheffield, 10 had become pregnant in a year, an even higher ratio, at least reaffirming the traditional virility of British sailors. Other naval personnel in Sheffield including females were reported under investigation for drugs.

Mike Crichley, editor of Warship World, said that when women were first sent to sea: “One senior officer said a nation that sends its women to sea is morally bankrupt and I think that is about right.” Admiral Sir John Woodward, former commander of the Falklands task force, bleated gently that: “We had to try it. There was a very strong demand for them to be allowed to serve on ships.” In the US the distinguished jurist Robert H. Bork, former Solicitor-General and Acting Attorney-General of the United States and Court of Appeals judge, not a man to make such accusations lightly, recounted the case of a female navy pilot, Lieutenant Kara Hultgreen, who pleaded that training standards not be lowered because “it’s my life on the line.” When she was killed in an attempted carrier landing the US Navy, according to Judge Bork, falsified its findings of pilot error to engine failure to appease the forces of political correctness.

44 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

In 1998 the first woman was appointed to command a ship in the British Navy and managed to avoid a collision for 13 days.

However one senior Australian Naval Officer I interviewed who had commanded a force of both mixed-sex and all-male-crewed warships was positive about the experience and said that on the mixed-sex ship the crew had been better behaved.

The Government published a parody of Lord Kitchener’s World War I recruiting poster: “Your Country Needs You” with the Field Marshal’s face replaced by a black soldier like something from The Black and White Minstrel Show. The Army instituted “gender neutral” physical standards: male soldiers’ strength standards were reduced so females did not feel inferior. In battle lives and victory might depend on soldiers’ ability to carry wounded or ammunition or operate heavy weapons and equipment by muscle-power.

The ethos of keeping women out of battle had come about not because of thousands of years of experience. Military author and former soldier George MacDonald Fraser commented: “Someone is plainly intent on wrecking the British Army. The recent suggestion that women might serve as front-line infantry is only the latest attempt to undermine its morale and efficiency, and is too wicked and cowardly to be written off as mere politically-correct stupidity.

“Women have not the strength, endurance or brutality for the job and every experienced officer knows it. The idea of a female teenager fighting hand-to-hand with a Panzer Grenadier or a Japanese White Tiger (or a Royal Marine) is ludicrous ... A woman’s presence would cost lives ...

“Has British manhood really so degenerated that men, at Westminster or elsewhere, would be content to sit safe at home while girls (I make no apology for the word) are bayoneted or blown up in their country’s quarrel? Can they contemplate a daughter or a sister coming home in a body-bag, or falling prisoner to the kind of beasts who are all too common in warfare today?”

Senior defence writer Sir John Keegan wrote that with emotional involvements between men and women soldiers in the stress of front-line combat soldiers who were worrying about each other as individuals were not likely to put the enemy in fear. Battle was not a soap opera. It was the nastiest situation known, a struggle for survival. He continued that women who really cared about the welfare of British society would see that their desire for equality even in military life must be balanced against the fairness owed to men. It was unfair to men, whose genes made them larger and heavier, to demand that their chances of survival in combat should be reduced by making them dependent on sisters-in-arms who could not care for them in a crisis.

While in both the British and American armed forces male personnel live in fear of having their careers ruined (and of prison sentences) because of accusations of sexual harassment, Justice Bork pointed out that the American Air Force has set up a special training facility to desensitise American male servicemen, if they are taken prisoner, to the screams of female fellow prisoners-ofwar being raped and tortured. As a victory for enlightened feminism this seems to have a certain paradoxical aspect.

In January 2001, it was reported that a married female soldier chosen as the official image of women in the Army – her picture in full combat gear had been widely distributed by the Ministry of Defence to highlight the role of women in the armed forces – had gone absent without leave and was suspected of running off with a sergeant. Senior officers described as “regrettable” and “unprofessional” the behaviour of a female lance-corporal in appearing

part-naked on page 3 of the Sun of 9 February, 2001, an event whose news-significance also caused it to take up the whole of the Sun’s Page 1 for that day, the letter-press commencing “Eyes front everyone, and get a load of this curvy corporal ...” The lance-corporal in question was reported as stating: “I know I’m going to get into big trouble but it’s something I’m desperate to do.” She did not undertake this activity as a private venture dissociated from her service persona as those fragments of clothing she was pictured emerging from were parts of an Army combat uniform.

A female Army officer who had previously starred in a TV documentary series Guns and Roses, Lt. Kat (sic) Astley, was reported to be facing possible dismissal when it was alleged in December, 2001, that she had been in a sexual liaison with her platoon sergeant. Both were married. A higher-ranking female adornment to the profession of arms, Captain Helen Molyneux, entered into a sexual liaison with a Colonel in the Russian Military intelligence agency the GRU when in Kosovo and was sent home (at the time of writing she was apparently still a serving officer). She was outraged by this treatment and claimed: “I have been swinging from devastation to tears ... I have lost my pride.”

In 2004 it was reported that a Royal Navy ship, HMS Cumberland, in deference to the political correctness of Blair’s Britain, had installed a Satanist chapel on board for the benefit of a Satanist crewman, a spokesman claiming: “The Royal Navy is an equal employer organization.” It is a little odd when the letters “HMS” stand for “Her Majesty’s ship”, Her Majesty being the Head of the Church of England, and whose Coronation in Westminster Abbey was a Christian sacrament. I remember being taken over a British cruiser as a teenager some years ago and being struck by the burnished motto: “Fear God. Honour the Queen.”

Still, it certainly gives one a warm feeling to think that a devotee of The Lord of the Flies and Prince of Destruction might find the launch-key for thermonuclear missiles in his hand.

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he Army set up a special school at Lichfield to teach drill-sergeants to be nicer to recruits. Shouting at recruits was banned, leading one 17-year-old to ask: “If Army recruits can’t handle being shouted at by drill sergeants, how are they going to cope with the noise of gunfire or the screams of casualties?”

At the Pirbright Depot, training-ground of the Guards Brigade and famous for producing some of the finest soldiers in the world, trainees were issued with red and yellow cards. Should they pull out a yellow card, it would show their drill sergeants they were upset and should be left alone for 15 minutes while their delicate nerves recovered from the shock of being shouted at. Should they be really upset and pull a red card, the drill sergeant would have to explain his behavior to a superior officer.

It was forecast that soldiers would be allowed to sue officers for giving the wrong orders, in accord with the European Convention on Human Rights. Eight other countries, from Russia to Liechtenstein, had asked for their armed forces to be exempt.

General Sir Peter de la Billiere said that this was almost impossible to believe and that he could think of no decision that would do more to damage morale and discipline.

In 2001 women in the armed forces were receiving breast implants at tax-payers’ expense (costing about £4,000 a pair) at make them “happier soldiers.” If they were taken prisoner in battle it might well make their captors happier soldiers too. Male members of the services had sex-change treatment and others had liposuction rather than route-marches to remove fat. In the

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“In 2001 women in the armed forces were receiving breast implants at tax-payers’ expense (costing about £4,000 a pair) at make them “happier soldiers.”

Male members of the services had sex-change treatment and others had liposuction rather than routemarches to remove fat”

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 45

“Women have not the strength, endurance or brutality for the job and every experienced officer knows it. The idea of a female teenager fighting hand-to-hand with a Panzer Grenadier or a Japanese White Tiger (or a Royal Marine) is ludicrous ... A woman’s presence would cost lives” introduction to his biography, The Light’s on at Signpost, George MacDonald Fraser, creator of Flashman, drew attention to: “The silly euphemisms, apparently harmless, but forever dripping to wear away common sense – the naivete of the phrase “a caring force for the future” on Remembrance poppy trays, which suggests that the army is some kind of peace corps, when in fact its true function is killing.”

Colonel Bob Stewart, DSO, former commander of the British forces in Bosnia, said he had become ashamed of the Army. He said that every major defence project was scrapped, delayed or fraught with problems, and British soldiers did not have a reliable rifle. The standard SA80 was so unreliable that it was boycotted by elite formations such as the SAS. He said that in Bosnia a British patrol had come under severe fire and nothing more was heard of them for 11 hours because of radio malfunctions, vehicles were operationally ineffective for lack of spares, and many men had had to buy their own camp-beds. He continued: “Anyone who is so fixated about their breast size or so emotionally troubled about their gender has absolutely no place in a fighting army ...

46 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

The ideal soldier is physically tough and mentally balanced, so a serviceman who needs liposuction or a sex-change is in the wrong job. And, dare I ask, how a female soldier, who is so distressed by remarks about her appearance that she had to resort to implants, would cope under fire?” General Sir Charles Guthrie, Chief of the Defence Staff 1997-2001, claimed he had repeated warned Defence Secretary Hoon of the unsuitability of women for commando and special forces type roles.

Relatively minor offences by servicemen received Draconian punishments if they trespassed upon political incorrectness. In September, 2001, a Lieutenant-Colonel who had worked his way up from the ranks was dismissed from the Army and sent to prison for having kissed and fondled a barmaid after an afternoon’s drinking at a mess luncheon two weeks after he was promoted.

Following conviction he was kept under guard until sent to a civilian prison. His name was placed on the sex offenders’ register.

The sentencing court said it had taken into account his “excellent record” of 31 years’ service. He held the British Empire Medal and had served in Oman, Iraq and Northern Ireland.

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INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 47

On the US Weblog Conservative Voice in July, 2006, syndicated writer Marie Jon made the following comment on the evacuation of British passport holders from the fighting in Lebanon: “I was quite startled to hear, in an online report posted by the Daily Telegraph, that British passport-holders evacuated to Cyprus were undergoing ‘Home Office screening’ to determine whether they ‘might constitute a threat.’ The report reasoned that this made sense ‘because obviously we’re talking about a large number of people who have lived in the Middle East most of their lives.’

“This presents a bizarre spectacle: Britain’s navy repatriating what you might call extreme expatriates who potentially pose a ‘threat’ to Britain in the so-called war or terror. This makes the following headline from The Guardian all the more inapt: ‘Britain’s biggest sea evacuation since Dunkirk.’ As I recall, none of the 300,000 Dunkirk evacuees required a security screening before returning home.” Had the evacuees kissed and fondled barmaids it might have been a very different story.

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n October, 2001, troops preparing for active service in Afghanistan were refused life insurance cover by the Ministry of Defence’s own life-insurance scheme. While a compensation culture was flourishing at home, troops were denied cover for risking their lives in battle: a two-fronted pincer attack on the Armed Forces’ morale and effectiveness. One serviceman who quit the Royal Marines in disgust wrote: “The government’s obsession with political correctness has been applied to the military with such relish that at times it seems almost insane. I have lost count of the number of forms I have had to fill in giving details of my ethnic origin. These forms used to be anonymous, but the last one I had to complete carried my name, rank and service number … There was always a great reluctance to fill in these forms, the fear being that anonymity had been removed so that the government could check how many members of ethnic minorities were being promoted … No doubt that’s what New Labour means when it talks about being “investors in people” ... I would have felt a lot more “invested in” had I been sent on operations with a gun that worked properly.”

He continued, regarding the application of health-and-safety standards to training: “The steep ravines worn into the slopes that recruits had to run up and down at various points on the sevenmile course were also contrary to all sorts of well-meaning legislation. The recommendation was for proper steps and handrails to be installed – just like the ones you find in the mountains of Afghanistan or the wadis of Iraq.”

The unreliability of British Army rifles had not been remedied when British forces saw active service in Afghanisan in 2002, and there were more complaints in the Iraqi war. In March, 2001, it was reported that Army trials to test the ability of women to serve in front-line combat units were so diluted they were little more than “aggressive camping,” according to Brigadier Seymour Monro, the Army’s director of infantry who had been in charge of them. He said tasks which women soldiers could not perform had been made easier or dropped from the trials. The exercises did not include any heavy weapons or tanks, and women were not tested in a number of hard tasks under battlefield conditions, such as digging themselves into hard ground under fire. A few months later it looked as if British forces might be campaigning in the mountains of Afghanistan, a country in parts so formidable that carrying the food, water and heating resources necessary for survival taxed the strongest soldiers even before weapons-loads and fighting were considered.

48 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

In a circular argument, considering that the tests were to see if women were fit to serve as infantry, a Ministry of Defence spokesperson claimed: “No attempt was made to replicate infantry battle conditions because, since women do not currently serve in the infantry, they are not trained as infantry.” On the same day these claims were made three female soldiers began an all-Arms commando course for special forces. Instructors were specially banned from swearing at them, and told that crude language and sexist jokes were not acceptable. Training that involved stripping off clothes, for example when swimming and crossing rivers, also had to be “reviewed” and presumably wars requiring river-crossings would cease to be an option. Thus the Army was being turned into another instrument of Kulturekampf.

In 2008, in the House of Lords , in an action unprecedented in modern times and probably ever, all five former Chiefs of Defence Staff rose to complain that, in effect, the compact between the armed service and the country was ruins, and that the government was neglecting the armed forces and risking soldier’s lives. Simliar concerns were expressed by others with the highest credentials.

Admiral Michael Boyce, who led British forces into Iraq before retiring in 2003, said there was “blood on the floor” at the Ministry of Defence. At the time of his appointment Admiral Boyce had been criticized for being a political Admiral and allegedly too pliable to the government.

General Guthrie said Mr Brown was personally to blame for failing to fund the forces during a decade in charge of the treasury.

“He was the most unsympathetic Chancellor of the Exchequer as far as defence is concerned,” he said. “I think really he must take much of the blame for the very serious situation we find the services in today.”

“The money that defence is given for its budget is not sufficient to meet the level of activities we are currently required to engage in,” Admiral Boyce told BBC’s breakfast television. He continued that because soldiers did not have resources for training: “The first time they see some of their equipment is when they actually go out on their very first operational patrol.” He attacked Mr Brown for giving the defence secretary a second job running Scotland: “I feel that he has let the armed forces down by not appointing a secretary of state who is full time. When you’ve got people who are getting killed and maimed in the service of their government, and you put at the head of the shop someone who is part-time, that sends a very bad message. And that is the message I get back from our soldiers and our sailors and our airmen. They feel insulted. They feel he is treating them with contempt.” Frederick Forsyth reported that when he learned of the criticism, Gordon Brown was heard to remark: “I’m not being pushed around by those bastards.”

Various coronial inquests into the deaths of servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan found the cause to be lack of equipment. Captain James Philipson, 27, of 7 Parachute Regiment, was killed in Afghanistan when his unit was totally outgunned in a fight with the Taliban, lacking machine-guns, rifle-grenades and and night-vision kits.

Andrew Walker, the assistant coroner for Oxfordshire, spoke of the Defence Ministry’s “unforgivable and inexcusable” failure to supply the right equipment. He accused the ministry of “a breach of trust between the soldiers and those who govern them.”

At the same time, at an inquest into the deaths of Lance Sergeant Chris Casey, 27, and Lance Corporal Kirk Redpath, 22, of the Irish Guards, David Masters, the Wiltshire coroner was told that the two soldiers, killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, did not have

a Mastiff heavily armoured vehicle because they were all in use already. They died in a Land Rover. The Coroner said a specific request had been made for a Mastiff, and that: “It is my belief that it is imperative that our forces, whether they be in Iraq or Afghanistan, are given the best available equipment.”

After comments by Coroner Walker on the government’s “serious failure” to address the difficulties of one Private Jason Smith, who died of heat-stroke in Iraq, the government responded by initiating legal moves in the High Court to prevent coroners from using language critical of the Ministry of Defence when issuing verdicts on the deaths of troops on active service. Sarah Moore, for the government, argued the coroner should not have used the phrase “serious failure,” and the case raised “a matter of general importance” because the phrase “serious failing” was regularly being used in inquests of British Service personnel in Iraq. In this she was probably correct.

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fter the government lost the attempt to silence critical coroners, Coroner Walker again condemned shortages of military equipment in Iraq in April, 2008, and claimed that on the balance of probabilities two British soldiers, Stephen Wright, 20, and Samuela Varuna, 27, killed by roadside bombs, would not have died if they had had a Warrior armoured vehicle instead of a Snatch land-rover. Dozens of soldiers were said to have died previously in poorly-protected landrovers and the lack of armoured vehicles despite repeated requestes was a running joke.

There were countless reports of the squalid conditions of British troops. When I interviewed one senior Australian officer, recently returned from the Gulf, he said that the bad quality of British rations and other amenties had shocked their allies.

Calls were made for a national Armed Forces Day to support the morale of the armed forces, something never conceived of as being necessary in Britain before. There were increasing complaints of bad treatment of servicemen by the government in a number of ways. A 24-year-old Royal Marine who lost both both legs and his right arm after stepping on a Taliban landmine in Afghanistan was refused a full compensation package by the Ministry of Defence.

In another case, a 23-year-old paratrooper received 37 injuries in an explosion in Afghanistan including severe brain damage, speech loss and the amputation of both legs. He was awarded £152,150 – according to the Daily Mail, which has highlighted a number of such cases, there was a comparison a £484,000 payout to a civilian RAF typist who strained her thumb.

In the Daily Mail of 2 July, 2007, Peter Zimonjic, who ran a website “London Recovers” to help survivors of the 7 July, 2005, Muslim terrorist bombings, detailed stories of callousness and indifference by the government towards the survivors, including the most hideously maimed. Compensation was given for only three injuries per person, regardless of how many injuries a person actually received. One man who lost both legs, an eye and spleen, received only a trivial amount for the loss of eye and spleen because they were the “second” and “third” worst injuries.

Many needing care for life were given miserable sums that would soon be gone. The reason given for this, Mr Zimonjic revealed, seemed even worse on consideration than on first glance – it was to avoid setting a precedent lest better payments be demanded to victims of IRA bombs.

It was reported in the same paper on 13 March, 2008, that an army cadet who lost his sight in an IRA bombing has been docked

“General Sir Charles Guthrie, Chief of the Defence Staff 1997-2001, claimed he had repeated warned Defence Secretary Hoon of the unsuitability of women for commando and special forces type roles” £55,000 in compensation because he had already been blind in one eye. Stephen Menary, 21, suffered horrific injuries in the blast outside a Territorial Army centre seven years ago. The bomb blew off his left hand and ear and ripped open his chest and stomach.

It also destroyed his left eye – the right he had lost to cancer as a baby. Rather than getting £110,000 for total blindness it was ruled that Mr Menary would receive £55,000, the payment for losing one eye. He was also partially deaf. He was set to receive a final settlement of £270,000, of which £60,000 was set aside for INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 49

loss of future earnings. The package would give him an income of around £12,000 a year – little more than the amount he will lose in benefits. In February, 2001, he spotted an army-issue torch on the pavement while on his way to a paratroop training evening in White City, West London. The then 14-year-old opened the battery cover and triggered an IRA booby-trap bomb.

On his 18th birthday, he was feted by Tony Blair, whose wife Cherie posed with the youngster on the steps of No.10 to acknowledge his bravery. Because he had more than £16,000 of savings in the bank, the payout he received meant that he would lose his means-tested incapacity benefit, rent and council tax allowances which together come to £9,996 a year. The payout would leave him better off by just £2,000 a year or £38 a week.

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ilitary author Frederick Forsyth has raised the matter of an RAF C-130 Hercules transport hot down over Iraq in January, 2005, when one engine was hit by ground-fire. Ten service personnel aboard were killed. This hit on one engine, Forsyth has argued, would not have destroyed the aircraft if it had been fitted, as American and Australian Hercules were, with fire retardant foam, called ESF, between the engines. On the eve of the inquest into this he wrote: “Seeking to save its sad carcass from criticism, the Ministry of Defence has tried to gag the coroner and witnesses, decreeing that no-one must mention ESF because it is secret. Rubbish: this stuff is as old as the Hercules (about 40 years) and everybody knows about it.”

In August, 2008, it was reported that Jamie Carpenter, the youngest British soldier wounded in Iraq, who had been hit by two rocket-propelled grenades, losing the use of his left leg and his right hand as well as suffering massive internal injuries, had been denied council tax disability benefits (he had also, like many other patients, caught MRSA twice and C.diff in filthy hospitals).

There seemed to be little improvement since Kipling, more than a century earlier, had written a harrowing poem on the treatment for former British soldiers, ending with stinging line: “We leave to the streets and the workhouse the charge of the Light Brigade.”

The Times of 31 January, 2008, reported that nearly 1,000 new army recruits faced having their combat training cut by half so that they could be rushed to the battlefields of Afghanistan. One senior defence source admitted that the new recruits would not be properly qualified to fight since they would receive only half the basic training usually given combat infantrymen. “I would be very nervous of having to deploy with this limited level of expertise and experience in the frontline companies.” He added that such a scheme could undermine the reputation of the Army.

A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said there was no question of training being compromised. However, she added: “We have adapted our training in terms of our operational requirement and we’re taking action in terms of the manning challenges.” It was symbolic of the ersatz, fantasy-ridden quality of official British life that in April, 2008, with British troops comitted to real conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, the Imperial War Museum commenced a year-long exhibition on the fictional adventures of James Bond.

In order to further reduce defence force morale and patriotic feelings generally, it was announced in 2008 that the Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows aerobatic team would be banned from appearing at the 2012 Olympic Games in London because they were deemed by the Orwellianly-titled Department of Culture, Media and Sport to be “too British,” and their military background might 50 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

be deemed offensive to some of the other countries taking part in the games.

A charity called Help for Heroes, which raised money for wounded British soldiers, asked Portsmouth City Council for a £500 donation towards a proposed “fun day.” The council initially denied the request, saying that it: “could cause offence to ethnic minority groups living in the community who may also have experience of injury/violence due to the war.” The council did eventually grant some money after a public outcry.

The high fighting quality of the personnel of British armed forces, whatever the real or imagined shorcomings of leadership and equipment, has been an article or faith for hundreds of years. Yet recently, and perhaps inevitably given the pressures of political correctness, the war against traditions ands values which they have been subjected to, an obcessive safety and compensation culture, skimped training, and the constant awareness of unnecessarily mean and niggardly treatment, even this has now been called into question. Widespread misgivings began to appear – in 2007 when British sailors and marines captured by Iranian boats, co-operated with their captives, hastened to take off the Queen’s uniform, and were released flourishing gifts from Mr. Ahmadinejad.

One of them told a press conference that he had cried himself to sleep after his captors cruelly called him “Mr. Bean” and took away the iPod which he had carried on a combat mission. The sailor said he also cried when he was reunited with the only female captive, Faye Turney. He further complained about the quality of the presents which the Iranians gave them when they were released.

Two of them rushed to sell their stories to the media. The Ministry of Defense later changed its mind about permitting this, but the fact that it was considered at all suggests the Government knows nothing about the ethos of the fighting services. One of Britain’s most respected senior officers, General Sir Michael Rose, who led the UN force in Bosnia, claimed the incident showed that the Royal Navy was no longer fit for modern warfare. The sailors failed to fight back, and behaved as though they were on a Mediterranean cruise, he said. The entire ethos of the military had been undermined: “Nelson said that no captain could ever be criticized for laying his ship along the enemy and engaging him. We didn’t quite get that here. There were junior soldiers in the Second World War who resisted heroically, in far worse circumstances, or in the Falkland Islands. What made young men in the Scots Guards or the Para’s charge with bayonets in the middle of the night when they had run out of ammunition, against enemy machine guns?”

There were other things to come, on a much larger scale, and suggesting that this was not an isolated aberration but rather a symptom of a dangerous change in the armed forces whole culture: senior Tory politician Michael Portillo wrote in 2008:

“Only recently has it become clear that in the battle for Basra earlier this year British troops remained aloof while Iraqi and American forces overwhelmed the Mahdi Army, followers of the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Apparently Britain had done a deal with the Shi’ite group. According to some reports, senior US officers and the Iraqi government have now lost faith in British forces.”

In August, 2008, Prime Minister Brown told British troops in Afghanistan: “I believe that our Olympic athletes and everybody else in our country will remember that you showed exactly the same courage and dedication,” apparently thinking this was a compliment. In 1948, incidentally, the Britain had spent less tthan 900,000 pounds (about 20,000,000 pounds in 2008 terms) staging the Olympic Games in London. In 2008 the cost of the 2012 games was estimated at 10 billion pounds and rising – ie 500 times as much in real terms. For this to happen when the armed forces were being starved of funds and equipment in the midst of two difficult wars and a turbulent international situation indicated more than mere incompetence – there was either a profund cognitive dissonance within the government or something worse.

The Military Covenant Commission, a panel of military experts led by Frederick Forsyth found in September 2008 that at least 62 British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan had been killed as a result of inadequate equipment. It also pointed out contrasting levels of compensation: 152,000 pounds for Bombadier Ben Parkinson for losing his legs to an Afghan land-mine and 484,000 pounds given to an RAF typist for repetitive strain imjury.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission opposed moves by the British Army to limit foreign recruits into the army to 15% to safeguard its British identity and values, a spokesman for the commission claiming that there were “large issues of principle” involved.

Writing in the Telegraph on 29 January, 2009, Jeff Randall stated: “Our Armed Forces are expected to police the world’s hell holes on a budget (£33 billion) that is just one fifth of what we hand out for “social protection” (£169 billion). The military is showered in warm words, but suffers from a freeze on real (inflationadjusted) spending. Of all Labour’s wicked deceits, this is the one I find most offensive.” n INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 51

FROM TGIF EDITION

The New Winebox Is this another Paradise Conspiracy?

What do a current National government minister, a former Minister under Helen Clark, a Cook Islands tax haven bank, allegations of money laundering and Osama bin Laden have in common? IAN WISHART broke this story in TGIF Edition this month 52 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 53

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global business conglomerate tied to international money laundering and linked

by Indian police, the CIA and MI6 to one of the world’s most wanted criminals and terrorists, is trying to get listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange by leveraging its connections to a couple of senior NZ politicians.

National’s Internal Affairs Minister Richard Worth is named in Companies Office records as a shareholder in the New Zealand arm, WSD Global Markets Ltd (via his family trust), while the deputy leader of Jim Anderton’s Progressive Party – Matt Robson – is chairman of the board and has been on the board for four years.

The “WS” in the name stands for “Wall Street”, which is the overall brand name of the international group of companies.

But they have many offshoots. WSD in New Zealand stands for “Wall Street Derivatives”, whilst there has also been in this country a WSBC Financial Ltd (Wall Street Banking Corporation, in case you’re wondering), a WSD Financial Group Ltd (formerly WSBC Financial Group Ltd), a WSD Financial (NZ) Ltd, WSD Intellectual Property Ltd, and Wall Street Derivatives Ltd. Some of those companies have chopped and changed names numerous times, and that’s just the New Zealand entities.

While most are still in existence, one of them, WSD Global Markets Ltd, is being prepared for a listing on the New Zealand stock exchange. That would give the mysterious entities behind this web some serious international credibility, and that’s why this story is important – because internationally the wider group of companies associated with these entities have been linked to money-laundering.

Embarrassingly for Matt Robson, some of the international group’s alleged money-laundering – involving fundraisers for Osama bin Laden’s terror network al Qa’ida on one occasion – may have been physically carried out from the Auckland offices of its New Zealand division, during Robson’s time on the board.

For his part Richard Worth, who serves as a Minister outside Cabinet, only bought into the company with a tiny stake of 5,000 shares in November last year, around the same time as a larger buy-in by Tasman Capital Ltd, which is planning to help WSD Global list on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

Neither Worth’s nor Tasman Capital’s shareholdings are large in the greater scheme of things – WSD Global has a total of 109 million shares allocated across five investors, and Tasman’s holdings are just over 2.7 million shares while Worth’s trust has only 5,000, as we’ve already said.

The remaining 106 million shares are ultimately owned by an Auckland-based trust company, which is likely to be holding them on behalf of an undisclosed beneficial owner, believed to be interests associated with India’s Patel Group. If the company lists successfully, existing private shareholders will benefit from that float.

Apart from its involvement in some key transactions as you’ll see, there are no specific complaints about WSD Global Markets Ltd – the NZ entity due to the sharemarket front – but it’s the activities of other companies in the Wall Street group that have attracted the attention of investigators around the world. WSD NZ’s managing director is Riaz Patel, son of a wealthy Indian business magnate, Asgar Patel. The Patel family, or as their business is known in India, “The House of Patels”, is one of that country’s largest family conglomerates, with stakes in transport, courier and 54 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

logistics companies, and a global financial arm called Wall Street Financial with various subsidiaries spun off under different “Wall Street” brand names.

Less than two years ago, police and customs agents in India and United Aram Emirates raided several businesses in a money-laundering sting, and found that a Cook Islands’ registered tax haven bank – Wall Street Banking Corporation – had issued what India alleges were three fraudulent Letters of Credit to enable Dubai importers to purchase Indian food shipments (of a crop known as ‘pulses’), those Letters of Credit having a face value far exceeding the money they actually represented. Additionally, the Letters were allegedly “back-dated” according to investigating agencies – often a sign of criminal intent where export documentation is concerned.

Wall Street Banking Corporation, although based in the Cook Islands, had a big administrative office in Auckland.

A number of Indian businessmen were arrested for allegedly falsifying export records as part of the operation, and a total of 40 people were also arrested in Dubai “on charges of laundering illegal money of Indian politicians and top industrialists to Italy, the UK and the US,” reported one Indian newspaper in 2007.

In simple terms, it’s alleged the food shipments and their documentation were simply cover for financial transactions designed to launder large sums of money on behalf of powerful clients.

The Indian papers reported the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) was examining the involvement of Dawood Ibrahim, an organized crime boss and Islamic terror fundraiser for al Qa’ida, in the money laundering, while “yet another investigating agency, Enforcement Directorate, is looking into the role of a Cook Islands registered bank – the Wall Street Banking Corporation.”

The Times of India was even more gung ho about the role of the Cook Islands tax haven bank and its “proximity” to international terrorist and Asian mafia boss Dawood Ibrahim.

“NEW DELHI: In the Rs 250-crore (NZ$100 million) pulse-scam case, the Enforcement Directorate is looking into the role of a Cook Islands registered bank – the Wall Street Banking Corporation – which issued Letters of Credit (LCs) to the three Indian companies that exported pulses to Dubai during a ban period.

“Sources said the value of LCs issued by the Wall Street Banking Corporation for the three firms involved in the pulse scam far exceeded its net worth. The ‘briefcase’ bank, sources said, operates from a one-room office in Cook Islands and has 26 employees that includes six directors.

“Started by Riyaz [sic] Patel, a Dubai-based businessman of Indian origin, the bank’s operations are being scanned by intelligence agencies for its suspected involvement in money laundering on behalf of many Indian tycoons.

“Patel’s proximity with Dawood associates is also on the radar of the sleuths whose findings point to links between those involved in the pulse scam with D-gang members,” reported the Times of India.

One of the Indian exporters that Wall Street Banking Corporation provided Letters of Credit for was Jetking International. Not only was Jetking’s owner, Shyam Sunder Jain arrested in India, but Jain’s brother Naresh Chandra Jain was picked up on the other side of the transaction in Dubai.

Another report in the Times of India, from earlier in May 2007 details that side of the story.1 “����������������������������������������������������������� Naresh Chandra Jain, the man accused in one of the biggest money-laundering rackets to be busted abroad which involves Indians, has confessed to interrogators in Dubai that he had routed

funds to Al-Qaida, besides having links with terrorist mastermind Dawood Ibrahim.

“Sources said the accused made the disclosures during his interrogation by intelligence agencies of US, UK and Italy, which had separately questioned him in Dubai. Jain is among seven Indians arrested by UAE police in the last week of February.

“The money laundering racket was busted in a synchronised 18-month operation involving intelligence agencies of several countries, including US and UK. UAE authorities had seized bank accounts of 21 expatriates in the hawala racket, pegged at US$50 million, in which money was laundered to countries like Italy, UK and US, a part of which was used by Al-Qaida operatives.

“India was apprised of the developments by US intelligence around the same time that the racket was busted in UAE and was given some key documents to take the probe forward as it involved some Indian politicians and industrialists.

“Besides huge investments in real estate, the hawala racket has been linked to Rs 250 crore pulse scam which the DRI and the CBI are currently investigating.

“The racket was unearthed after close surveillance of the Indian kingpin, Jain, who was spotted at the marriage reception of Dawood’s daughter. During more than a year’s close watch, sleuths discovered the Indian was a conduit for laundering D-gang’s narcotics money and channelising a part of the funds to Al-Qaida.

“Sources said the 21 expatriates whose bank accounts were frozen in Dubai include 15 Indians, two Pakistanis and one each from US, Lebanon, Venezuela and the Netherlands.

“One of the nine companies being probed in the money laundering racket was a recipient of pulses exported from India, the initial investigation revealed,” concluded the Times of India report.

It is a matter of public record that Wall Street Banking Corporation issued the Letters of Credit to the pulse exporters and dated them for its clients, and it is a matter of public record that at least one of the companies using those L/Cs had definite

“TGIF Edition approached Matt Robson for comment as well. Sounding extremely nervous, he told us he would make no verbal comment and would only respond to questions in writing. He failed to answer by press time, however, and instead instructed his lawyers to issue a legal threat against the newspaper – a threat we’ve told his lawyers is a waste of time” links to al Qa’ida fundraisers.

But it’s not the only brush with a money laundering investigation that the Wall Street companies have endured.

Wall Street Banking Corporation was named in a 2003 Indonesian criminal investigation as well.

“Robbing banks by using fictitious letters of credit (L/Cs) seems to work well,” reported one financial journal in November 2003.

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 55

Dawood Ibrahim is one of the world’s most wanted men.

Intelligence agencies from the US, UK and UAE broke a massive money-laundering ring in Dubai in Feb. 2007, and newspapers subsequently reported Naresh Chandra Jain confessed to his role in the money-go-round, admitting that cash was been funneled to both Dawood Ibrahim and al Qa’ida. Naresh Chandra Jain’s brother was running a company using the services of Wall Street Banking Corporation, which also attracted the attention of intelligence agencies.

The article detailed how officials at an Indonesian bank, BNI, conspired with two companies to steal NZ$278 million using letters of credit issued by “Wall Street Banking Corporation, Cook Islands; Dubai Bank Kenya Ltd; Middle East Bank Kenya Ltd; and Rosbank Switzerland.”

Indonesian police audit teams found “a host of irregularities in the L/C transactions”, including that the tax haven banks writ56 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

ing the credits didn’t normally do business with BNI, that inappropriate “discounts” were loaded, that “documents delivered carried no export notifications as proof of the existence of goods exported”, and there was “no confirmation of shipping documents (bills of lading).”

What shipping documentation existed was clearly fraudulent, such as one document that claimed “1.5 million metric tons of quartz sand” had been “transported in one shipment”.

To put that little fib into perspective, the world’s largest cargo ship, at 661,000 tons, weighs ten times more than the Titanic and is capable of hauling 250,000 tons. There isn’t a ship in the world capable of carrying 1.5 million tons.

All of this taking place with a raft of tiny banks in the Cooks, Switzerland and Kenya.

WSD NZ boasts in company profiles about its Kenyan operations, so it’s a fair bet the Kenya entities have some kind of connection with the wider Wall Street group.

For the sake of clarity, there is no suggestion that Wall Street Bank Corporation knowingly assisted in the defrauding of the BNI, but the majority of its income was made from writing Letters of Credit for commission, and it appears to have been none too picky about its customers provided they paid their bills.

Riaz Patel’s father Asgar, based in India, was the beneficial owner of Wall Street Banking Corp (WSBC) at the time the BNI Indonesia deals were done, although his son Riaz had a role in the management of the bank during this time. However, the fallout from the Indonesian bank staff’s crimes coincided with WSBC crashing to its knees as well.

In August 2003, just as Indonesian fraud investigators were pouncing on BNI and arresting the officials involved for their $278 million swindle, staff at WSBC’s Auckland office – where the actual “back room” running of the Cook Islands bank was actually done – found that WSBC urgently needed restructuring because, in reality, it was now broke. What Auckland staff didn’t know was what had happened in Indonesia, and they were never told.

Asgar Patel later confided that he was “sick to the stomach to the point of vomiting” with fear; everything, the survival of the entire Patel business empire across the world, hung on making the ownership transfer, recapitalizing the bank and renewing its banking licence, because there were so many intercompany transactions and deals routed through their bank.

A spokesman for WSBC in the Cook Islands, fending off media inquiries as news of the Indonesian scandal broke, told journalists his bank had actually “helped uncover the fraud”.

“Indeed, WSBC believes that it was its own internal procedures and consequent communications with the legal department at BNI early this year [2003]…that…alerted the authorities within BNI to the possible fraudulent documents and the misuse of the L/Cs,” said the spokesman.

Which, although it sounded great, doesn’t sound convincing.

The BNI audit found the Letters of Credit scam continued undetected from September 2002 right through until July 2003, when investigators found out, and WSBC would have been earning fees on each Letter they issued (41 L/Cs were involved across the four issuing banks). Given that it was BNI’s biggest ever fraud at the time, and nearly tipped the government owned bank over, it’s unlikely that BNI head office staff sat on their hands for months after allegedly receiving a tip-off “early” in 2003.

A Wall Street subsidiary, with both Riaz and Asgar as directors, was also at the centre of National Crime Authority investigations

on several occasions in Australia – one of those involved shipments of cash, being smuggled into Australia on false documentation.

The senior Patels escaped prosecution, as they have in a number of jurisdictions, by blaming the offending on junior staff. But Australian court records (R v GUPTA [1999] NSWCCA 384) disclose amounts that beggar belief: “������������������������������������������������������������ On each of seven occasions between January and October 1995 the applicant [appellant] received on behalf of his employer [the Patels’ Wall Street Exchange and Financial] an amount of money in Australian currency and later signed an international currency transfer report declaring that a far larger amount of money had been received on that occasion.

“The smallest discrepancy concerned money received on 22nd September 1995. $10,315 was received but $498,000 was declared as [having] been received, a difference of $487,685. The greatest discrepancy concerned the declaration made on 13 February 1995 when $18,255 was received, whereas $950,000 was declared as having been received, a difference of $931,745.

“Altogether approximately $4,800,000 was declared as having been received whereas only a little under $80,000 was in fact received, a difference of approximately $4.7 million.

“On each occasion the method used was the same. The money would be received in a packet and money from another source

Street”) located in Kings Cross. Allegations had been made that directors of that company engaged in financial transactions designed to assist clients to systematically evade payment of income tax and/or launder the proceeds of crime.”

The investigation found that clients had been taking undocumented sums of cash to Wall Street, and the NCA was unable to find records of how much. The Patels later agreed to cough up more than A$1 million in a 2002 settlement with authorities for WSEF’s role.

The particular method of under-reporting or over-reporting cash shipments, using false documentation, is similar to the drug money laundering systems used by Indian crime boss Dawood Ibrahim, currently listed at No. 4 on the Forbe’s list of the World’s Top 10 Most Wanted Criminals.

“His businesses include gold and drug smuggling,” reports one entertaining profile on Dawood.3 “The gang is also heavily involved in [cricket] match-fixing…Dawood’s business activities are not confined to the subcontinent. His network extends to several countries of the African continent, and to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Dubai, Germany, France and UK.” “Dawood Ibrahim heads an organization known as the DCompany which carries out billions of dollars of operations in Mumbai alone,” claims his Wikipedia entry. “He is believed to

“Dawood Ibrahim heads an organization known as the D-Company which carries out billions of dollars of operations in Mumbai alone. He is believed to control much of the hawala system, which is the very commonly used unofficial system for transferring money and remittances outside the view of official agencies” would be added to it. A complicated series of transactions would be entered into, presumably to try to give the intended declaration an appearance of correctness.”

The massive discrepancy, making it appear that Wall Street was in possession of more cash than it really was in Australia, would have given the company the ability to take in funds under the table from organised crime, tax evaders or clients trying to evade financial reporting laws, and ship that money out, in real terms, as clean cash (its arrival in Australia supposedly having already been documented by authorities). In other words $4.7 million of documentation (at face value) came in, and $4.7 million in real cash, with face value documentation, could later be exported.

That $4.7 million, by the way, only involved cash shipments signed for by one employee of the firm. Another employee (there were only two staff) was identified as signing for the shipments on other occasions, and he too was prosecuted.

Australia’s National Crime Authority then turned its attention to some of Wall Street Exchange and Finance Pty Ltd’s clients, applying for search warrants in what became known as “Operation Gordon”.2 “It was said to have been conducted under a reference to the Authority described as the “Limbic Money Laundering Reference”.

The application recounted that this investigation concerned the activities of a currency exchange and investment business conducted by Wall Street Exchange and Finance Pty Limited (“Wall

control much of the hawala system, which is the very commonly used unofficial system for transferring money and remittances outside the view of official agencies.”

And in fact, that ‘hawala’ money laundering system got Wall Street Financial’s Indian office in trouble, when it was caught – again – shipping money on false documentation and raided.

On that occasion, August 1994, Riaz Patel, a director of the company and present in the office, was placed in “judicial custody” and questioned. Reports available to TGIF Edition however indicate Patel was held for three weeks and at one point even tortured as part of the inquiry.

Yet, when we put questions to Patel today, he denied ever being detained in India or Dubai over his business dealings.

Four years later, Wall Street Finance was again hauled before the courts to explain its role in a money laundering capture that had snared one of its clients.

“The alleged smuggling was detected when DRI officers intercepted a vessel `Ya Hajipir’, carrying onions to Dubai, and the foreign currency including travellers cheques (TCs) worth Rs 1.44 crore (NZ$580,000) were found concealed under the cargo,” reported Bombay’s Indian Express newspaper 10 years ago.

“The investigation revealed that foreign currency worth Rs 13.9 crore (NZ$5.6 million) in TCs which had been obtained through Wall Street Finance Ltd and its sub-agent, Time Travel and Cargo (TTC), were allegedly smuggled out to the Middle East. The INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 57

recipients were identified as Salim Dady, Dost/Dosa, and one DD, suspected to be associates of the notorious gold smuggling syndicates of Dubai. The amount is identified from transactions during a period of two months.”

So what is New Zealand’s Minister for Internal Affairs doing mixed up with the Wall Street group of companies, and their unique way of doing business?

Richard Worth told TGIF he had absolutely no idea that the majority beneficial owner of New Zealand’s WSD Global, Riaz Patel, had been implicated in money laundering and financial fraud investigations.

“I know nothing of these issues and I doubt if they are true. If there is any evidence of irregularity in relation to WSD New Zealand my trust will immediately divest itself of its minor shareholding.”

It seems the company has made a concerted effort to cultivate NZ business leaders and politicians. Jim Anderton’s Progressive Party Deputy, Matt Robson, has been on the board of WSD and its earlier incarnations since 2005 and serves as chairman. Whether he realized the Letters of Credit operation for WSBC in the Cook Islands was actually being run out of the group’s Auckland office, we simply don’t know. Nor do we know what due diligence Robson did on his business partner before agreeing the join the company.

Meanwhile, Tasman Capital’s due diligence appears to have concentrated on the nuts and bolts financials, rather than reputational hazards. Wall Street’s dodgy past, and the 2007 swoop by Indian police and intelligence agencies – whilst these are matters of public record just a mouse click away for anyone with access to Google – were missed.

For WSD Global, there are clear reputation benefits from operating their global network out of Auckland, because New Zealand doesn’t arouse suspicion. In a promotional business to business feature dated 3 December 2007, WSD says “being a New Zealand company helped it secure clients because of the country’s good international name and tight regulatory frameworks.”

The first inkling that Tasman Capital, a new investment company trying to make a go of it in a tight market, had been suckerpunched into supporting WSD Global came in a letter to Tasman shareholders dated 4 July last year: “The directors are delighted to inform shareholders that

Tasman Capital has entered into an exclusive Heads of Agreement to purchase a substantial NZ business.

The business is profitable and we believe it is a very suitable candidate for a NZAX listing.

“The agreement is nonbinding and will only go ahead on the completion of satisfactory due diligence.

The name of the business cannot be disclosed until later in the year…if the deal proceeds, we expect the deal will significantly increase the net assets of Tasman Capital.”

That letter was also posted in the Sharetrader forum on the internet by Tasman Capital’s MD, Joseph van Wijk.

On 9 October last year, Tasman Capital advised shareholders it was pushing ahead with the listing of a company it now named as WSD: “WSD is an international broking house specializing in foreign exchange, precious metals, futures and options. WSD is headquartered, registered and regulated in New Zealand and also has branches in Bangkok, Dubai, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Nairobi…we are very excited by this company’s prospects.”

Initially, Tasman Capital expected National MP Richard Worth to be a director, because in reply to a question, Joseph van Wijk answered, “The CEO of WSD is Riaz Patel, the Chairman is Matthew Robson and the other directors are Richard Worth and myself.”

But instead, Worth has remained simply a minority shareholder, probably in recognition that he could not serve as a private company director and be a cabinet minister without incurring a potential conflict of interest.

TGIF Edition approached Matt Robson for comment as well.

Sounding extremely nervous, he told us he would make no verbal comment and would only respond to questions in writing. He failed to answer by press time, however, and instead instructed his lawyers to issue a legal threat against the newspaper – a threat we’ve told his lawyers is a waste of time.

There’s no suggestion that Robson has done anything untoward, but his association with Riaz Patel brings with it the reputational collateral damage that the public record provides. Whilst embarrassing that the Letters of Credit used in the alleged al Qa’ida money-go-round had input from the New Zealand office – confirmed to TGIF today by Riaz Patel – during Robson’s association with the group, that’s all it is: embarrassing. As a non-executive

“Whether Robson realized the Letters of Credit operation for WSBC in the Cook Islands was actually being run out of the group’s Auckland office, we simply don’t know. Nor do we know what due diligence Robson did on his business partner before agreeing the join the company“

58 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

chairman, Robson’s role doesn’t include riding shotgun on daily transactions of the group.

However equally, as chairman, his role arguably does include protecting shareholders, especially public investors if the company is listed, from potential negative fallout. Given a semi-regular series of brushes with the law around the world over the past two decades, Patel’s reputation risk is a matter of public interest not only for investors in WSD Global but also New Zealand generally; future incidents could reflect badly on New Zealand supervisory agencies.

Riaz Patel is seeking to create a publicly listed company in first world New Zealand, yet the Cook Islands authorities recommended he was “not a fit and proper person” to hold a tax haven bank licence.

On a best case construction, and Riaz Patel has admitted this himself to TGIF, we believe the incidents, particularly those in Australia, disclose a massive failure as director and company secretary to supervise his Australian office. On a worst case construction, we believe the incidents suggest a reckless negligence in providing deals to virtually anyone who asks, or possibly even criminal involvement. It’s the old problem, is it incompetence or corruption?

It should be noted that whilst WSD’s NZ operations are under a different legal entity (ie, separate companies on paper) than the Cook Island or Indian operations, Riaz Patel is the common link across them, and he appears to own the lion’s share of the NZ entities through some kind of private trust structure, believed INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009 59

Tax havens spring up all over this story. In this case, ownership of the Cook Islands-based WSBC rests with a trust named Natar Holdings ultimately domiciled here in Jersey, the British Channel Islands tax haven

to be ultimately based in the British Channel Islands via a trust structure called Natar Holdings. Additionally, WSD is claiming its global operations are run from New Zealand, and the company has admitted it did the transactional work in Auckland, for the controversial tax haven bank in the Cooks.

“The Patels group’s first family bank was opened in the Cook Islands, The Wall Street Banking Corporation. The bank, which holds Class A rankings of the Bankers Almanac, is managed by a team of highly qualified bankers and is supported by state-ofthe-art IT set-up and back office operations from Auckland,” reported Gulf News on March 24, 2003. 4 Cook Islands regulators actually had to fly to Auckland to investigate the activities of the Rarotonga bank, because the supposed head office in Rarotonga didn’t have the relevant transactional records.

Investors hoping to get a slice of the WSD action despite what we’ve revealed here could be out of luck – regulators in the Cook Islands are in the middle of a massive court battle, believed to be costing nearly a third of what the island makes in tax haven licensing fees each year (about $3 million), to try and cancel the banking license of WSBC in Rarotonga, and last night the Cooks announced a new move in the chess game: they are changing the law, and will be booting out banks like WSBC. The reason for the Cooks having a downer in WSBC is because they regard it as a “shell” bank, and they’re particularly incensed that Riaz Patel failed to disclose the money laundering investigations in Australia when he applied for the banking license. And of course the 2007 al Qa’ida allegations have not given Cook Islands regulators any confidence that the bank’s practices have improved.

And in our view, if the Cook Islands, already a tax haven black sheep itself back at the time, felt Patel was too risky and his executive team too inexperienced at running a proper bank, what does that say about Patel’s business approach?

60 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

New Zealand, it seems, is crucial to the continued operation of WSD group in the Western financial system.

For Tasman Capital, meanwhile, the story is an unfolding nightmare. What seemed like a great potential listing and a chance to put Auckland more on the world financial map, has suddenly taken on a whole Fonterra/Sanlu dimension or, to use an Indian analogy, they’ve grabbed a tiger by the tail.

Whether Tasman Capital can tame that tiger, and create a New Zealand financial services company that doesn’t rip them to shreds down the track, is the $64 million question.

As for Robson and Worth, we are not suggesting for a moment they’ve done anything wrong. What we are suggesting is that relying on Riaz Patel’s assurances may be a reputational risk they can’t afford to take.

NOTE TO INVESTIGATE READERS: This story first appeared in the Feb 13 issue of TGIF Edition. TGIF brings you this kind of journalism every week, so if you like Investigate you’ll love TGIF. The sequel to this story, including a response from the mysterious Riaz Patel, and new information leaked from Cook Islands tax haven, is available in the Feb 20 edition of TGIF. See www.tgifedition.com for subscription options, and you can ask for the Feb 20 edition as part of the package Referebces: 1. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Hawala_kingpin_admits_routing_funds_to_AlQaida/articleshow/1999762.cms 2. http://law.ato.gov.au/atolaw/view.htm?rank=find&criteria=AND~fingerprints~ basic~exact&target=CC&style=html&sdocid=JUD/BC9707379/ 00001&recStart= 1&PiT=99991231235958&recnum=1&tot=1&pn=ALL:::CC 3.http://www.paklinks.com/gs/world-affairs/303632-who-dawood-ebrahim.html 4. http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/03/03/24/81923.html n

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Braised Short Ribs (Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques.)

You’ll need 6 beef short ribs, about 400-500g each (ask for 3 bone centre-cut) 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon thyme leaves, and 4 whole sprigs thyme 1 tablespoon freshly cracked black pepper 3 dozen small pearl onions 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 cup diced onion 1/3 cup diced carrot 1/3 cup diced celery 2 bay leaves 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1 1/2 cups port 2 1/2 cups hearty red wine 6 cups beef or veal stock 4 sprigs flat-leaf parsley 2 bunches silverbeet, cleaned, centre ribs removed sea salt and freshly ground black pepper Method 1. Season the short ribs with 1 tablespoon thyme and the cracked black pepper. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.

2. Take the short ribs out of the refrigerator an hour before cooking to come to room temperature. After 30 minutes, season them generously on all sides with salt.

When you take the ribs out of the refrigerator, preheat the oven to 220 degrees C.

Toss the pearl onions with 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon thyme, 3/4 teaspoons salt, and a pinch of pepper. Spread them on a baking sheet and roast them about 15 minutes, until tender. When they have cooled, slip off the skins with your fingers and set aside. Turn the oven down to 175 degrees C. 3. When it’s time to cook the short ribs, heat a large Dutch oven or sauté pan over high heat for 3 minutes. Pour in 3 tablespoons olive oil and wait a minute or two until the pan is very hot and almost smoking. Place the short ribs in the pan and sear until they are nicely browned on all three meaty sides. Depending on the size of your pan, you might have to sear the meat in batches. Do not crowd the meat or get lazy or rushed at this step; it will take at least 15 minutes. When the ribs are nicely browned, transfer them to a plate to rest.

4. Turn the heat down to medium, and add the onion, carrot, celery, thyme sprigs, and bay leaves. Stir with a wooden spoon, scraping up all the crusty bits in the pan.

Cook 6 to 8 minutes, until the vegetables just begin to caramelize. Add the balsamic vinegar, port, and red wine. Turn the heat up to high and reduce the liquid by half.

Add the stock and bring to a boil. Arrange ribs in the pot, lying flat, bones standing up, in one layer. Scrape any vegetables that have fallen on the ribs back into the liquid.

The stock mixture should almost cover the ribs. Tuck the parsley sprigs in and around the meat. Cover tightly with aluminium foil and a tight-fitting lid if you have one.

Braise in the oven for about 3 hours.

5. To check the meat for doneness, remove the lid and foil, being careful of the escaping steam, and piece a short rib with a paring knife. When the meat is done, it will yield easily to a knife. Taste a piece if you are not sure. Let the ribs rest 10 minutes in their juices, and then transfer them to a baking sheet.

Turn the oven up to 200 degrees C. Place the short ribs in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes to brown.

Strain the broth into a saucepan, pressing down on the vegetables with a ladle to extract all the juices. Skim the fat from the sauce (if you made these the day before, you will have already skimmed them) and, if the broth seems thin, reduce it over medium-high heat to thicken slightly.

Taste for seasoning.

Heat a large saute pan over high heat for 2 minutes. Tear the silverbeet into large pieces. Add 3 tablespoons olive oil to the pan, and stir in the cooked pearl onions.

Add half the silverbeet, and cook a minute or two, stirring the greens in the oil to help them wilt. Add a splash of water and the second half of the greens. Season with a heaping 1/4 teaspoon salt and a pinch of ground black pepper. Cook for a few more minutes, stirring frequently, until the greens are tender.

Place the swiss chard on a large warm platter, and arrange the short ribs on top.

Spoon lots of braising juices over the ribs.

Serve with mashed potatoes and crème fraiche mixed with horseradish.

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

touch life > drive

Jettin’ Away

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What we say: Pro: Con: INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

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touch life > toybox

Epson EH-DM2 projector

Olympus Mju 9000

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HT-BD8200 Blu-ray Home Theatre Sound Bar

Coolpix L100

AB900 wireless car speakerphone

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Dreary poet’s society PADDY THE WANDERER

By Dianne Hawo th

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

Tahiti

POEMS 1951-2006

By C. K. Stead

Whether the Will is Free

Crossing the Bar Quesada

All Visitors

Ashore,

Quesada

Quesada

Quesada Quesada

can

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

The Black River

A poet , Australian Hal Colebatch At the request of some in literary circles, Investigate plans to publish the new poetry by those seeking to break through. Submissions should be emailed to Poetry Editor Amy Brooke, amy@investigatemagazine.tv, who explains here what she’s after

SOME OTHER COUNTRY: New Zealand’s Best Short Stories Edited by Marion McLeod and Bill Manhire (Fou th Edition) what is a poem?

1984 does

Short Stories,

The Flamingo Anthology of New Zealand

Marion

Not Her Real Name INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

The Light River,

Blair s Britain The Light River Redhead with phosphoSan Demetrio

rus

Ready When You Are! IN THE TABLOID WORLD It seems enough just to go into rehab.

lovers at Jetty Restau ant This has its real joy. Sun ight sparkles, there is a warmth that makes eyes glow.

Fingers twine for a ittle, inking these two who mended one another, long ago.

Dinghy sailing It must be hard to sail a boat without wonder, a pure, child ike wonder at small things: the colours of shallows over mud banks, the wings of cormo ants d ying on spit-posts, c abs going under rocks, or simply blue, sp ay, and a sail full of air.

And it is impossible to sail without knowing. of breaking st ains, and that just so much wind can capsize a dinghy, and that nowhere for all the simple beauty and all the showing of freedom, is there any smallest estua y you can b ind with non-science, or ie to. Therefore, when I see men sai ing dinghies there seem to be with them and whispering at the last inch of the sea clear shadows of much ear ier men.

Hal Colebatch.

Investigate plans in future to publish a monthly best poem.

Please forward preferably short poems to the Poetry Editor, Investigate magazine, Box 302-188 North Harbour, Auckland, or via the email address amy@investigatemagazine.tv

Spend a little time and a lot of money and presto!

All Fixed.

IN THE REAL WORLD It’s quite different It needs a special ingredient, YOU. We need your personal commitment and motivation to make it all work.

We’re Ready... When You Are!

The Ashburn Clinic, Private Bag 1916, Dunedin, NZ. Tel 03 476 2092 Fax 03 476 4255 Email ashburn@ashburn.co.nz www.ashburn.co.nz

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Former

see life / music

It’s not you, it’s the music Lily Allen It s Not Me, It s You

Alright, Still It’s Not Me, It’s You

It’s Not Me

Various Artists Motown 0

Franz Ferdinand Tonight: F anz Ferdinand

You Could Have It So Much Better Tonight

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

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Not just any Holocaust movie THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS Asa Butte eld, Ve a Farmiga, David Thew is, Jack Scanlon Mark Herman M (content may disturb) minutes

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Schindler’s List

Brassed Off Little

Voice

The Diary of Anne Frank Life is Beautiful Striped Pajamas

INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

The Departed

CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy, Kristin Scott Thomas P.J. Hogan TBC S

Crashers

c

Wedding

Wedding

My Best Friend’s Wedding

Muriel’s

Bridget Jones

Confessions Reviewed by Roger Moore INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009

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Burn After Reading Reviewed by Donald Munro

The Coen Brothers do it again Burn After Reading

STEP BROTHERS Will Ferrell , John C. Reilly , Ma y Steenburgen Adam McKay R (o ensive language,sexual material and other content that may o end) minutes

Step Brothers BURN AFTER READING George Clooney, B ad Pitt, F ances McDormand.

Ethan and Joel Coen R (violence,o ensive language and sex scenes) minutes

Drillbit Taylor

Semi-Pro

Burn After Reading

Fargo

O Brother How Art Thou The Brady Bunch

Rain Man

Reviewed by Colin Covert INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM March 2009