The real scandal revealed yesterday when Labour released baseless dirt on John Key was the fact that taxpayer money was used to fund the Labour Party "research unit" and Labour President Mike Williams to do the digging.
Helen Clark, Mike Williams and the rest of the Labour Party and parts of their Internet presence, The Standard, are all well versed in the latest John Key smear and Clark is at the centre of the mud flinging.
This research unit is supposed to be investigating new policy or trying to fix "problems" for New Zealand citizens-so perhaps we are better off for it-but the taint that lingers for Labour over this misuse of taxpayer funds, yet again, should be a concern for voters, especially those wanting to vote red come election day.
Visits to Melbourne by Williams and other members of the research unit and a 2 year plus history of dirt digging just on this "neutron bomb" doesn't come cheap-business class flights, Collins Street Hotels and lovely meals-but of course this hasn't stopped Labour from misusing and stealing taxpayer money to gain political advantage in the past.
Before the 2005 Election it was close to 1 million dollars and a few weeks ago it was $60,000 for some election promo books.
The cost of just this one dirty filthy and baseless political smear must run into 10s of thousands of taxpayer dollars. There are of course other taxpayer funded trawling exercises that have also siphoned up taxpayer money to make rivals look suspect-the Merrill Lynch dirt flinging comes to mind from a few months back.
It seems as long as it is taxpayer money Labour believe it is fair game to use for any purpose that they see fit and this will only get worse if they are re-elected.
c Political Animal 2008
