An awkward coincidence!

The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which paid $55,000 to Shane Jones, and another which gave over $100,000 to the National Party. But obviously they won't be expecting anything in return for their money, oh no.

And I've found another. National Steel Limited (NBN: 9429031545907) caught my attention for its appalling environmental record: the scrapyard company is such a scofflaw that they can't even be bothered applying for resource consent before setting up a toxic waste dump (perhaps because they realised it would be refused), and their scrapyards regularly catch fire, endangering everyone nearby or downwind. The companies register shows its director and principal shareholder is Vipan Garg, of Omahu Road, Remuera. And guess who appears on National's donor list this year?

Which is an awkward coincidence. But I'm sure National has a perfectly reasonable explanation for why they've put an environmental criminal, who just happens to have given them money, on their fast-track invitation list.