October 17, 2021 7:00am by David Farrar

Guest Post: Winston gets another headline

A guest post by Ross Meurant:

Winston appears to be back where he started – as I recall 1989: fighting defamation but this time it’s a chap who runs a different sort of business to that in which Selwyn Cushing was involved. (1)
And then there was the incident involving Siminovich Fisheries – early Twenty First century.
At a point in time after my nine years in parliament, when I was a shareholding director of a Vela Group company and Winston Peters said utterances deemed to have been defamatory by Peter Simunovich and Vaughan Wilkinson, (2) I was “called back” from Australia by Philip Vela to; “sort the problem”.
I did. I obtained a written apology from Winston and gave that to Simunovich CEO Vaughan Wilkinson who then ran the apology on TVNZ.
That the apology was made known appeared to really upset Winston and it set a barrier between Winston and Simu. I was in the middle.
This was a barrier which “others” presumably did not take into account, when the false allegations of corrupt practice were made in what became known as, the Scampi Affair.
This time however, Winston was on the other side, claiming defamation of his character. Ironically, he was on the same side as Simunovich – but not as a joint plaintiff.
The culmination of this saga for Simunovich, resulted in NZ Heald capitulating and TVNZ failing to sustain its false allegation, resulting substantial damages. (3)
Today, it seems as if Winston has another issue with alleged defamation – this time potentially as a defendant against claims being made by Mongrel mob Leader, Mr Tam. (5)
As I have a “rapport” with a gang leader – Head Hunters – (4), perhaps I might be “called back to sort the problem?”
Always willing to help.
PS “Rapport” defined in the circumstances of the video means:
“I was accepted as a guest speaker to address the issue: “Rule of police” v “Rule of law.”
It should not be misconstrued in any shape or form to imply that I am involved with” gangs” (although some would say Red Squad was a “gang”) or that I have sympathy – although I do have an in depth understanding of how gangs evolve and perpetuate – as a result of twenty-one years front line exposure as a cop and from academic studies.

Ross Meurant, graduate in politics both at university and as a Member of Parliament; formerly police inspector in charge of Auckland spies; currently Honorary Consul for an African state’ Trustee and CEO of Russian owned commercial assets in New Zealand and has international business interests.

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