Esponenti ewlenin tal-Gvern ta’ New Zealand stqarrew għal aktar minn darba li huma kienu disposti jagħtu l-informazzjoni kollha lill-Gvern Malti dwar it-trusts ta’ Konrad Mizzi u Keith Schembri jekk jintalbu uffiċjalment.
Minkejja dawn l-istqarrijiet ċari – u minkejja li issa għaddew ’il fuq minn 15-il xahar mill-pubblikazzjoni tal-Panama Papers – għadu mhux magħruf jekk l-awtoritajiet kompetenti tal-Gvern Malti – fosthom l-FIAU, il-Pulizija, id-Dipartiment tat-Taxxi Interni, it-Tax Compliance Unit u l-MFSA – qattx għamlu talba bħal din lill-awtoritajiet ta’ New Zealand.
Il-każ tat-trusts ta’ Mizzi u Schembri ssemma diversi drabi fil-Parlament ta’ New Zealand iżda l-aktar minn kelliema tal-Partit Laburista, l-akbar grupp politiku tal-Oppożizzjoni.
Stqarrijiet fis-sens li New Zealand kienet lesta tgħaddi informazzjoni lil Malta saru kemm minn John Key, il-Prim Ministru fiż-żmien li qam il-każ is-sena l-oħra (u li rriżenja f’Diċembru li għadda), kif ukoll minn Bill English, il-Ministru tal-Finanzi ta’ dak iż-żmien u li llum hu l-Prim Ministru tal-pajjiż.
Ftit sigħat wara l-pubblikazzjoni tal-Panama Papers, fil-5 ta’ April 2016, Andrew Little, il-Mexxej tal-Partit Laburista u Kap tal-Oppożizzjoni, għamel din il-mistoqsija lill-Prim Ministru John Key:
ANDREW LITTLE (Kap tal-Oppożizzjoni): Can the Prime Minister guarantee that no offshore trusts registered in New Zealand are being used to hide illegally obtained assets or dodge tax?
JOHN KEY (Prim Ministru): No Prime Minister can give that assurance… what is quite clear is that New Zealand gives all of that information not only to Australia but to any jurisdiction that asks for it. We have been able to comply with every jurisdiction that has asked. I also note that we have 40 double-tax agreements and 11 information- sharing agreements, one of which includes Malta.
Is-suġġett baqa’ jkun diskuss fil-Parlament ta’ New Zealand anki l-għada, is-6 ta’ April 2016.
F’dik is-seduta tkellem fost l-oħrajn Winston Peters, il-mexxej ta’ New Zealand First (partit ieħor tal-Oppożizzjoni) li rrefera għal dak li kien qed jingħad fil-midja li t-trusts fi New Zealand kienu koperti minn segretezza kbira, bħallikieku kienu f’‘Fort Knox’, u staqsa:
“… are they (il-midja) wrong and he (il-PM John Key) right?
Għal darb’oħra Key sostna li New Zealand tagħti informazzjoni rilevanti. Key wieġeb hekk: On the advice I have had, yes, they are wrong, because of the disclosure regime New Zealand has.
Id-dibattitu kompla hekk:
WINSTON PETERS: If his acquaintances, the Prime Minister of Malta’s chief of staff and his Minister of Energy, avail themselves through the Rotorua and the Haast Trust of his ‘Fort Knox’, are they also wrong and he right?
MR SPEAKER: There is no ministerial responsability for that.
Battibekk ieħor dwar il-konnessjoni bejn Maltin u trusts fi New Zealand, qam fis-seduta tat-12 ta’ April 2016 bejn Grant Robertson, deputat ewlieni tal-Oppożizzjoni Laburista, u Bill English, il-Ministru tal-Finanzi, illum Prim Ministru ta’ New Zealand.
GRANT ROBERTSON: How can he justify a regime which he helped to creat and continues to defend, that has led to the undermining of the tax base in a country such as Malta, where senior politicians use New Zealand trusts and managed funds to make tax-free profits, and that has led to the Maltese people protesting in the streets?
BILL ENGLISH: Of course, it is up to the Maltese government to decide whether any of those allegations are actually correct and it may well ask for information from New Zealand, which, of course, it would supply. These matters will be dealt with by the expert review.
GRANT ROBERTSON: How can he deny that New Zealand is eroding the tax base of a country like Malta when its tax evasion came via ‘a combopack’ from New Zealand designed to exploit New Zealand’s “weak due diligence” – as described by Mossack Fonseca – and has been made up of “New Zealand foreign trusts (which pay no tax on foreign income) and what is described as ‘Look Through Companies’… which could be owned by the trusts”?
BILL ENGLISH: Not being as expert on these matters, I would not want to comment on the tax affairs of the Maltese Prime Minister, or whoever the member is actually referring to. The expert review will deal with the issue related to disclosure…
Il-każ taż-żewġ Maltin li nqabdu bi trusts fi New Zealand baqa’ jissemma minn żmien għal żmien. Fit-8 ta’ Awwissu 2016, il-kelliem Laburista Grant Robertson reġa’ semma l-Panama Papers u dak li jirriżulta minnhom u kellu kliem iebes għall-Ministru Bill English għaliex qal li dan wera ruħu indifferenti għall-ħsara li dawn it-trusts kienu qed jikkawżaw lil pajjiżi oħrajn.
GRANT ROBERTSON: Most New Zealanders are prepared to pay their fair share of tax because they want to fulfil a responsibility to a good society – and good on them for doing that. But those who seek to avoid their obbligations and who seek to cheat others taxpayers – we should have no time for them whatsoever, but the first thing the Prime Minister (John Key) did was to back those people. And I do not care what country they come from – Bill English stood up in the House and said: “We don’t need to care about the Mexican taxpayers”. We actually do.
We actually need to care about the fact that right around the world we have tax systems that support people paying their fair share, because when you go to the OECD and say: “We want multinationals to pay their tax” – which we do – how can we stand up there with any credibility and make that claim and ask for the assistance of the rest of the world when we are the ones with a system that is being exploited?
We are the ones with a system where somebody from Mexico, named the ‘Duke of Influence’ could park his money; where discredited Brazilian politicians with $150 million worth of money that seems, potentially, to have been corruptly found, find its way to New Zealand; and where corrupt Maltese politicians file their money in New Zealand. That damages our reputation.
U wara dan kollu, lil Mr Robertson ngħidulu… aħseb u ara l-ħsara li dawn il-‘politiċi korrotti’ qed jagħmlu lil Malta u lill-poplu tagħha!
