Can Al-Khalaf Sell New Zealand Taxpayer-Funded Agri-Hub?

The Taxpayers Union is calling on the government to provide assurances that taxpayers’ assets tied up in the controversial “Agri-hub” cannot be sold by Saudi businessman Hmood Al-Ali Al-Khalaf. Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, says:

“We have been advised that Mr Al-Khalaf could sell the Agri-hub with New Zealand taxpayers having absolutely no rights of recourse. Incredibly, officials spent $11.5 million on the Agri-hub with no contract or legal power to prevent Mr Al-Khalaf popping the equipment onto Ebay or shipping all the stuff back to his farm in the Hawke's Bay."

“The Taxpayers’ Union were first to discover that officials obtained no rights of access to the Agri-hub. We can now reveal that Mr Al-Khalaf owns outright the land, the taxpayer-funded equipment, and even the sheep that taxpayers purchased off him and flew to Saudi Arabia, although most of those are now dead. Far from being a New ZealandTrade and Enterprise demonstration farm to showcase Kiwi know-how, this was nothing short of a gift that smells of chequebook diplomacy.”

"The government is trying to spin this deal as a creative way to fed off a legal claim. Why then are officials unable to produce a settlement agreement or evidence that a genuine legal exposure existed?

ENDS

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