A Chinese wall – yeah right

Helen Clark is trying to insist that comments by herself and th Trade Minister on Auckland Airport will have no impact on what is meant to be the impartial decision making by Mallard and Parker on the application.  She explains:

Mr Mallard and Mr Parker are the relevant ministers – they are not subject to cabinet responsibility or collective responsibility on this, they make those decisions in their own right.”

She also said that any views which other ministers might wish to express about a particular proposal had to be done out of earshot of Mr Mallard and Mr Parker, in case their decision became subject to legal challenge.

Well unless Trevor and David have been a hermatically sealed room with no access to newspapers on TV, then I suggest the so called Chinese Wall has been breached,

What this means is that if the bid is turned down, Dubai will have a reasonable chance of success in getting the decision overturned by the courts because Goff could not keep his mouth shut.