15 September 2017

The Green Party asks where is National’s credibility now over the “Saudi Sheep” deal?

The Green Party says revelations around the National Government’s “Saudi Sheep” deal shows the key argument used to justify the $11.5 million taxpayer-funded project was a fabrication.

Then-Foreign Minister Murray McCully said in 2015 that the multi- million dollar deal to set up a demonstration farm in the Saudi desert for a wealthy Saudi businessman was based on Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade legal advice around the risk of a possible lawsuit from the businessman, Sheik Hamood Al Ali Al Khalaf.

But a Radio NZ report today shows there was never any such legal advice.

“Today’s revelations show Murray McCully acted in a grossly improper way when he sanctioned this $11.5 million deal at the New Zealand taxpayers’ expense,” said Green Party co-leader James Shaw.

“Mr McCully’s central argument was that the deal was based on legal advice to avoid any possible threat of legal action from Sheik Al Khalaf, who’d been led to believe New Zealand would resume live sheep exports to Saudi Arabia, but which never eventuated.

“Now, thanks to the Ombudsman ordering the release of MFAT documents to Radio NZ, which have been suppressed for two years, we learn that no such legal advice ever existed.

“Last year, the Auditor General's investigation found “significant shortcomings” in how the deal was presented to Cabinet.

“The Auditor General said any benefits to New Zealand from the “Saudi Sheep” deal were unclear.

“Today’s revelations certainly appear to show that Mr McCully misled his Cabinet colleagues, misled Parliament, and misled the New Zealand public. That’s deeply serious and raises disturbing questions about how this National-led Government has been prepared to do business,” Mr Shaw said.

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