Cablegate: New Zealand edition

Last weekend, the Sunday Star-Times began releasing cablegate cables relating to New Zealand. This weekend, the Sunday Herald is in on the act. Today's revelations:

• Former Immigration Service chief executive Mary Anne Thompson (yes, she of the fraudulent CV) was a US spy, described as "an invaluable behind-the-scenes Embassy contact". Looks like we're well rid of her then.
• John Key, who promised during the 2008 election that he would meet with the Dalai Lama, gave secret assurances to the Chinese that he would not do so - and then got Murray McCully to lie to Parliament to deny the deal.
• The US is extremely touchy about the anti-nuclear legislation, and threw a hissy-fit when Labour campaigned to protect it in 2005.
• The US NSA has a permanent liaison within the GCSB.
• The US asked the SIS in 2003 whether they were monitoring Maori groups "in the wake of press reports that some Maori were embracing radical Islam". The SIS said no, "as they thought the police were doing an adequate monitoring job".
• The US tried to dump the innocent Uighurs in Guantanamo on us. Mary Anne Thompson pops up again here, putting the US case tot he government
• Jenny Shipley "offered to educate National MPs on how to examine themselves for sexually transmitted diseases". It is unclear whether this was before or after National's coalition agreement with NZ First.

But the big revelation is the news from the Sunday Star-Times that MFAT does not actually think a free-trade deal with the United States is worth it:

New Zealand's chief trade negotiator Mark Sinclair privately told a visiting US State Department official that New Zealand had little to gain from a free-trade agreement. This view – recorded in a confidential US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks – differs from the one the public has been given.

When the US joined the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks in November last year, Prime Minister John Key said it could be worth "billions and billions" to New Zealand, and that a deal would "position New Zealand brilliantly for growth".

But in a meeting in February, Sinclair told US Deputy Assistant Frankie Reed "there is a public perception that getting into the US will be an `El Dorado' for New Zealand's commercial sector. However, the reality is different".

He said New Zealand would need to "manage" public expectations about the benefits of a US free-trade agreement.

(Link added) This isn't surprising. An Australian analysis of their FTA with the US has shown that it actually cost them money. And with the US making similar demands around intellectual property, GM and pharmaceutical policy from us, an agreement with them will likely have the same result here. The question then is why politicians keep pursuing such deals.