Citizen Liu’s political and business links
Donghua Liu was granted New Zealand residency in 2005 against official advice by Labour Party minister Damien O’Connor.
Five years later, he was also granted citizenship against official advice after Maurice Williamson, Minister for Building and Construction at the time, lobbied on behalf of the property developer.
Mr Williamson asked his ministerial colleague Nathan Guy to process the case “as fast as possible”, who then used his ministerial prerogative to grant Liu citizenship on December 16, 2010.
The following day, Mr Williamson conducted the VIP ceremony himself in his Pakuranga electorate office.
Mr Williamson resigned his ministerial portfolios last month after the revealed he phoned a senior police officer about the domestic violence charges Liu was facing.
Prime Minister John Key said the MP for Pakuranga had “crossed the line”, despite assuring him he did not intend to influence the prosecution.
“He [Mr Williamson] started by saying that in no way was he looking to interfere with the process,” Inspector Gary Davey told his bosses in police emails released under the Official Information Act.
“He just wanted to make sure somebody had reviewed the matter to ensure we were on solid ground as Mr Liu is investing a lot of money in New Zealand.” After his resignation, Mr Williamson said he made five or six calls to police each year on behalf of people who approached him.
In Liu’s case he said: “There was no intention to do anything about screwing the outcome, but just to work out the focus of it. When I hung up I literally did not see that that was anything other than what a member of Parliament would normally do on behalf of somebody who had asked.”
Liu was arrested after a domestic violence incident against his de facto partner and her mother at his Boulevard Hotel, Newmarket, in December. He has since pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman and assault with intent to injure and is seeking a discharge without conviction.
The 53-year-old businessman has attended several National Party fundraisers and one of his companies donated $22,000 to the party in 2012.
Liu opened the $3.5 million refurbishment of the Boulevard Hotel with Prime Minister John Key and Mr Williamson in time for the Rugby World Cup as the first stage of an ambitious project to rejuvenate the derelict site.
Nearly three years later, the fourstar hotel is now a $400-a-week accommodation lodge and 20,000sq m of prime land behind it lies empty, with no resource consent applications lodged for the proposed hotel, apartment blocks and shops.
The proposed $70 million project at the former Carlton Bowling Club site stalled after Liu unsuccessfully lobbied three successive Immigration Ministers — again with support from Mr Williamson — to relax business immigration rules for wealthy foreigners. Liu hired professional consultants to lobby the Government to lower the $10 million threshold that non-English-speaking applicants need to invest to qualify as business migrants. He said his plan was unlikely to go beyond the design stage unless the rules were changed to source capital from overseas, particularly China. A policy change to relax the rules is still under consideration by the current Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse, who met Liu at the Boulevard Hotel with Mr Williamson to discuss the policy as recently as April last year. Mr Williamson also helped broker a deal in which Liu bought a beachfront property in Pauanui beside the MP’s holiday home, as well as helping out with minor repair work while the businessman was away in China.
He has downplayed his relationship with the wealthy migrant, claiming they are not friends because they do not speak the same language — one of the reasons why citizenship officials recommended his application be declined.