Posts by Alfie
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Hard News: Friday Music: Good News, in reply to Russell Brown,
Oh! I didn’t know David worked there. We met years later via our children.
Dave and I went halves in a 16mm Steenbeck edit bench out of Oz and resigned from TVNZ on the same day. We made a rather good resignation film and shared the office at Darby St for 3 or 4 years.
For a while, I took a small office there that had been vacated by Geoff Steven.
And the world just got a tiny bit smaller! Geoff was an integral part of Phase 3 at that time and produced several films out of Darby St. He was a committed left-wing filmmaker back in the day and made some decent docos on Rewi Alley. Leon Narby also used to hang out in the Darby St enclave from time to time.
When I returned from the UK over ten years later, Dave was editing feature films and Geoff had become a TV wanker, commissioning docos for TV3 and driving a clapped out Porsche 924.
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On the question of Whitney's status as a lawyer / non-lawyer... was he perhaps sanctioned over protecting and facilitating a bankrupt during the Neilson affair? Maybe one of the lawyers here could clarify?
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Hard News: Friday Music: Good News, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
I’m pretty sure I remember Willie Keddell editing The Maintenance of Silence in that space…
That's very likely Ian, although I wasn't around in 1985 as I'd already headed off for the bright lights of Europe. The main business in the Darby St Office was Maynard's Phase 3 Films with a graphic designer and an edit room sharing the rent. I think we paid $50 a week including electricity. Not bad for an office overlooking Queen Street, eh.
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Toby Manhire blows away John Key’s April 13 statement that he had been assured that his longstanding personal lawyer, Ken Whitney, had not worked or dealt with Mossack Fonseca. He includes a letter from Ken Whitney to Mossack Fonseca’s Compliance Department and points out some subtle but damning changes which have been made to Whitney’s website since the Panama Papers broke.
And he challenges the widely misreported untruth that Whitney is ‘Key’s personal lawyer’.
Some lawyers may take exception at the idea they might be sloppy email writers. But Mr Whitney, it turns out, is not a lawyer, or he was a lawyer, but he is not a lawyer any longer. Which means he is not Mr Key’s personal lawyer, as he is routinely and sloppily described.
As Mr Whitney reportedly told the Standard blog, “I’m not calling myself a lawyer, Mr Key is.”
The sloppiness, it is all around us!
The Australian Financial review has more details on the OIO and the Grozovsky's "investment" in NZ.
I get the feeling there’s a lot more to come as diligent journalists work their way through these millions of documents.
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It's official... there was no Mossack Fonseca hack. Calling him/herself John Doe, the whistleblower has published an 1800-word statement which begins, "Income equality is one of the defining issues of our time."
John Doe accuses banks, financial regulators and tax authorities of having failed.
"Decisions have been made that have spared the wealthy while focusing instead on reining in middle- and low-income citizens."
Doe offers to cooperate with prosecutors in return for immunity. But more importantly, he/she has singled out Prime Minister John Key for criticism.
The statement said Mr Key had been "curiously quiet" about New Zealand's role in enabling the "financial fraud Mecca" of the Cook Islands.
Key is the only world leader to be named in the document.
Here's the full statement courtesy the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
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Your post has brought back a couple of memories for me Russell.
Back in the early 80s I had an edit suite in Darby St., on the corner of Queen St. Myself and another editor called Dave Coulson shared the space with the venerable John Maynard who produced some excellent movies back in the day, Vincent Ward’s Vigil and The Navigator amongst them.
John was formerly director of the Govett Brewster Gallery so we had Rick Killeens on the wall and a veritable procession of contemporary NZ artists passed through. It was a seriously creative space. And the floor upstairs was occupied by the guys from RipItUp. Damn… I used to love that mag.
Then Jools Holland. When we lived in London, he and Paula Yates fronted a great Friday music show on Channel 4 called The Tube. We caught a 5:30pm promo one night which followed the usual format, except at the end when Jools said…
"That’s coming up on The Tube… be there or be fucked."
We pissed outselves and Jools earned himself a few weeks off the tele.
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Following TV3's leaking of info from the RBNZ lockup, Mediaworks news outlets are excluded from Reserve Bank media conferences until further notice. That seem fairer than banning all journos and has to be yet another nail in the Mediaworks' coffin.
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The Standard has published this screenshot of two conflicting headlines. The first dated May 3rd quotes Key as having spoken to Whitney who confirms his (fairytale) version of events. The second dated two days later quotes Key as saying he hasn't spoken to his lawyer at all. One of these quotes is a blatant lie from our PM.
Note that Mediaworks has since changed the story, but forgot to change the url which is still damning.
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Toby Manhire suggests a variety of new reality TV shows which might suit Mediaworks' new focus, neatly summarising the main issues facing our parliamentarians today. The Koro Hour is my favourite. I'd watch that!
For a bit of comic relief, Toddy McClay, like a bundle of hay, will bounce about the place, eyes darting back and forth like pinballs, trying to work out which one isn't the Prime Minister's lawyer.
Manhire is truly a national treasure.
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Hard News: Media Take: The Panama Papers, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
No, no, no….the crooks are the cyber hackers that breached Mossack Fonseca’s security.
The best information available so far suggests that an insider copied the Mossack Fonseca files, so there was no hacking involved at all. That makes it a rather foolish example for Key to choose. Mind you, it does show you where his head is at.
A whistleblower exposes the criminal wrongdoings of thousands of super-wealthy tax-evaders, and Key immediately commits $22m to preventing that same happening here. Despite Key portraying his lawyer as being a bit bumbling and sloppy, Ken Whitney and his mates will no doubt be delighted to have millions of taxpayer dollars being used to protect their "interests".
A listener contacted Morning Report today paraphasing Key.
'Don't worry about the morality, we'll help you hide your secrets.'
Damn right.
