NZ POLITICS DAILY: Treasury's corporate freebies

Once again the Green Party is on a mission to ‘clean up politics’ – this time focusing on the acceptance of corporate freebies by Treasury staff – see: Greens call for probe into officials’ free lunches. The party is asking lots of very important questions about these elite relationships. The extent of coverage of the issue shows the major sensitivity that the public and media continue to have towards issues of potential corruption and untoward business influence on politics. Although too often the discourse in this area veers into populism and crude electioneering, today’s situation is a major improvement over a previous era when business-political relationships were hardly ever examined at all. The Greens will continue to do well out such a focus.

It provides them with just enough anti-Establishment and critical orientation at a time when they could be seen as becoming too mainstream and boring. But the party will have to be careful not to appear as too arrogant and ‘whiter than white’ in such discussions – because the Greens also participate in many of the exchanges of resources in politics. For instance, it was not that long ago that co-leader Russel Norman accepted an ‘educational’ holiday to the US paid for by the US state. Is this really significantly different to the corporate hospitality that the Greens view suspiciously in others?

Attention is still on the Prime Minister’s handling of the spy allegations. An NZ Herald editorial labels of John Key’s ‘ineptitude’ over the issue as extraordinary, because he ‘usually has a good instinct for matters of public interest’ – see: PM's inept reply fuels spying doubts. David Farrar also admits that Key ‘stuffed up’ in his initial dealing with the issue, and he briefly delves into why this might have happened. But Farrar also manages to find a genuine silver lining to cheer about: Key’s ‘strength is his willingness to change course quickly when he does go down the wrong path’ – see: Israel 'spygate' a test for PM.

Bryce Edwards, NZPD Editor (bryce.edwards@otago.ac.nz)

Today’s content:

Israeli spy allegations

Editorial (NZH): PM's inept reply fuels spying doubts

Keith Lynch, Fred Tulett and Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Key confirms inquiry; Israeli backpackers were questioned

Audrey Young (NZH): Search for Israeli data leak begins

TV3: Government hunting source in Israeli investigation

TVNZ: SIS probed for Israeli spy story leak

Danya Levy (Stuff): Israeli - 'no way' backpackers left within 12 hours

NZH: NZ media blatantly 'prejudice' against Israel - Israeli paper

RNZ: Israeli newspaper hits out at spy claims

Andrew Koubaridis and Derek Cheng (NZH): Israelis 'guys with hearts of gold desperate to help' Ofer Levy