Melissa Lee has a bit of a reputation for being accident-prone. Her campaign in the Mt Albert by-election was marked with – depending on your point of view – some naivete or some straight talking. This week she’s being accused of having her fingers in NZ On Air’s (NZOA) till, hanging on to money allocated to her production company, Asia Vision, for Asia Downunder which should have been returned.
The story seems to be a bit of a beat-up, and not for the first time. During the Mt Albert campaign, serious allegations were made against Ms Lee and Asia Vision that she had exercised editorial control for Asia Downunder programme items dealing with politics during the run-up to the 2008 election that sent her to parliament as a National list MP; that she misled NZOA concerning her intentions to stand for Parliament at a time when she was seeking NZOA funding for the 2009 series of Asia Down Under; and that public (NZOA) funds intended for the production of Asia Downunder were used to make an election campaign promotional video.
