Bill English has hit on a new strategy for dealing with the government's at-best utterly slack and at-worst corrupt dealings with the Pacific Economic Development Agency: claim that the money is not earmarked for them, but instead is for general Pacific economic development. Unfortunately, that's not what the Budget says. The full information for Vote: Pacific Island Affairs [PDF] makes it quite clear who the money is going to:
It's right there in black and white: English is lying, and the money has been specifically allocated to his mates. The question is how English thought he could get away with this. Did he think that people just wouldn't check?