Two Wongs don't make a Wright

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Wong resigns from NZ Cabinet


Women's Affairs Minister Pansy Wong has resigned from her ministerial portfolios after admitting she misused parliamentary travel allowances, and her career in Parliament now hangs in the balance.

Mrs Wong, who also holds the ethnic affairs portfolio, was this week taken to task by Labour MP Pete Hodgson over a document she signed while in China relating to her husband Sammy Wong's business interests.

She signed the document as a witness and put her occupation as "Minister of the NZ Government", and her address as "Parliament Buildings, Wellington, NZ".

Mr Hodgson questioned how appropriate that was, and after further questions were raised as to whether Mrs Wong had used her travel privileges to also fund her husband's trip, she this afternoon admitted that was the case and business was in fact part of the trip.

While she is entitled to use the perk to pay for personal travel for her and her husband, she can't if travel involves pursuing private business interests.

In a statement, Mrs Wong, who was born in China and raised in Hong Kong, said it was a dream come true to become New Zealand's first Asian MP and that the job came with big responsibilities.

"That dream can only be kept alive by living up to the high standard set by the prime minister and myself. Therefore I have given my resignation as a Cabinet minister to the prime minister."

Prime Minister John Key, who is in Japan for Apec meetings, said he had accepted the resignation, and offering it was the right thing for Mrs Wong to do.

"On the face of it, this is a breach of travel entitlement rules and Mrs Wong has been unable to assure me it is a one-off breach," he said.

"I expect high standards from my ministers, and I believe that Mrs Wong has taken the appropriate step in resigning."

Mrs Wong said she had asked Speaker Lockwood Smith to have Parliamentary Service review the use of her entitlement, and if further misuse was discovered it would be refunded. She admitted she couldn't give assurances that it was a one-off situation, meaning her career in Parliament could also be in jeopardy.

Mr Key said he would wait for the outcome of that investigation and would not prejudge it.
"I am extremely disappointed to lose a minister who has been an effective and hard-working representative for the ethnic community and New Zealand," he said.


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Another issue here, apart from the travel expenses, is that she witnessed her own husband's business transaction. Isn't that a conflict of interest as she is his wife? Isn't a witness supposed to be impartial?

 

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Auditor-General considering Wong investigation

Auditor-General Lyn Provost has confirmed she is considering the latest information around Sammy Wong's possible misuse of his wife Pansy's Parliamentary travel perk, before deciding whether to investigate the matter.

Pressure for an Auditor-General's investigation into taxpayer-funded travel by Pansy and Sammy Wong grew stronger yesterday after fresh information emerged that appears to contradict what Mr Wong told a recent inquiry.

Labour MP Pete Hodgson, who tabled the information in Parliament, said it was likely further details of Mr Wong's trips to China would be revealed in coming days.

"We are keeping an eye on developments to do with Pansy Wong," a spokeswoman for Ms Provost told the Herald, but she was unable to say when a decision would be made whether or not to investigate the matter.

A Parliamentary Services inquiry last week cleared former Cabinet minister Mrs Wong and her husband of any serious misuse of taxpayer-funded travel perks.

The report by former public servant Hugh McPhail found the Wongs breached rules on use of the perk just once by conducting private business during a trip to China in 2008.

It found all other trips to China, where Mr Wong's business interests were limited to a hovercraft company, were taken for personal reasons, including a June 2005 trip to Fujian province he said was taken to search for family roots and meet relatives.

However Mr Hodgson yesterday produced hard copies of a translated Chinese blog which reported on a foundation stone laying ceremony for a new biotechnology campus development in Fujian in June 2005.

The blog reports that Mr Wong was in attendance as was his business partner and former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, whose company Alpha Group had invested in the $40 million project.

Mr Hodgson later told the Herald the information did not prove Mr Wong conducted business on the trip, but given Mr Wong attended the ceremony the morning after arriving in Fujian, it "strongly suggested" the trip was taken for that purpose.

Although the McPhail report found the trip was taken for genealogical research, "it would seem that Mr Wong ... has not told the whole truth or that if he has, for some reason Mr McPhail didn't report the whole truth".

"It's a piece of evidence that starts to discredit the McPhail report."

Mr Hodgson said he was receiving additional information about the Wongs' travel and would release more when he was convinced of its credibility.

Mrs Wong yesterday said her husband was invited to the Fujian foundation stone-laying ceremony by family friends who were majority shareholders in the project.

"There was no business interest, absolutely not," she told Radio New Zealand.

Mr McPhail yesterday refused to say whether Mr Wong had told him about the Fujian ceremony and would not answer other questions about the matter.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for KiwiRail has told the Herald the company understood that Mr Wong had been engaged by Pacific Power Developments (PPD), a New Zealand registered company with links in China "to arrange meetings in New Zealand for state owned CNR (China North Rail)" in 2005.

CNR's overseas trading arm, CNR Loric later won a contract to supply 20 locomotives to KiwiRail in an agreement signed in June last year.

However Mrs Wong has told the Herald her husband never worked for PPD.
By Adam Bennett

 

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More information disclosed on Pansy Wong's travel allowances

Pansy Wong took ten trips overseas during her two years as Womens Affairs and Ethnic Affairs minister including five to China where her husband has business interests, it emerged yesterday.

The information was disclosed yesterday by Prime Minister John Key in response to a question from Labour MP Pete Hodgson who, along with his colleagues, stepped up demands Mrs Wong return to Parliament to face questions around use of her travel allowances to further her husband's business interests.

Speaking on his behalf , Deputy Prime Minister Bill English said Mr Key had approved 11 overseas trips by Mrs Wong. The last one, a trip to India which she was scheduled to take at the end of this week, was cancelled when she resigned after admitting her husband had conducted private business while on a taxpayer funded trip to China in late 2008.

That trip was the first she took as a minister, and was followed by a further four to either to China which included a China leg, three to Australia and one to the US.

Mr English said one of the ten trips approved by the Prime Minister was for private purposes.

Asked whether the Prime Minister was aware of rumours Mr Key was aware of "many rumours" Mrs Wong and her husband were mixing private business with the ministerial trips, Mr English told Mr Hodgson he should wait for Parliamentary Service's report on the matter before making further allegations.

Later during Parliament's general debate, Mr Hodgson and his colleagues further attacked Mr Key and his Government for saying they were deflecting and evading media questions over the matter and playing for time by instructing Mrs Wong to stay away from Parliament until the report into the matter is completed.
By Adam Bennett