When the dirt doesn't stick

Labour has just lost the election. It has been been promising for a long time that they would produce evidence of dodgy dealings or behaviour of John Key - in his distant past. It was to be the only hope of winning the election. Labour Research Unit smear project manager Mike Williams, along with his research unit went on a tax-payer funded smear campaign trying to dig up the dirt against John Key.

Williams even went to Australia to see what he could find. Allegations centre around the so-called H-Fee - two payments totalling A$66.5 million ($75m) to Equiticorp funnelled via sham foreign exchange transactions in 1988. John Key was, apparently, the head of Elders Forex when massive illegal transactions were being conducted by that business group and Williams was to get a document that had Key's signature proving that Key signed off the dodginess. He found the document, alright, and the boys at The Standard were very excited. They even got someone in the Labour Research unit to do a guest post on the blog. This morning, when I asked the manager of the research unit about the unit's involvement with The Standard, she paused, refused to comment, did not deny the units involvement in the blog when repeatedly questioned and then slammed down the phone on me.

The final sentence in the post was:

Tomorrow: The date of the H-Fee and how the biggest white collar crime of the last century worked.

The Standard was also excited that today's Herald was to have a damaging story.

But how the crime worked and Key's role in it was not forthcoming. The post was pulled - here's the cache.

It was pulled as the dirt looked like dirt but wasn't dirt at all. How embarrassing. The document didn't have Keys signature . Mike Williams is so disappointed that he's not even answering his phone today. Hes too busy trying to find something for the Labour Research Unit to do. He has his tail between his legs. Its a dog of a smear. Labour campaign strategist Pete Hodgson didn't know much about the fraud.

If the Serious Fraud Office has been willingly misled, issues of perjury arise, but I'm a veterinarian, not a lawyer.

He's a good person to be a Labour strategist, then as Labour has gone to the dogs.