Unleashed

Book excerpt: He wrote about vigilantes during the Covid lockdowns. What could possibly go wrong? Grant McLachlan is a researcher and writer who has exposed dirty politics at local and central government level. With a background in law and town planning, he moved to the sleepy seaside suburb of Snells Beach to convalesce. Walking his dog along the esplanade provided routine and social interaction with the large dog walking community. A group of beachfront Boomers had other ideas. Under the guise of the ratepayers’ association and Neighbourhood Support, they chipped away at banning the predominant activities of beach users. The priggish, Nimby killjoys targeted everyone from developers, picnickers, motorhomers, recreational boating, to dog walkers. Whipping themselves into a lather, they lobbied for draconian measures, then formed vigilante patrols to enforce them. When Grant researched and exposed the pensioners’ schemes, the vigilantes tried to silence him. With the help of politicians, officials, and the media, the pensioners’ repeated attempts to stitch up Grant climaxed when a little old mother of a cop threw a camera at Grant, breaking his nose, and she then fled the scene. Realising the plot, Grant withheld footage of the incident. The police charged Grant with assault and robbery. With Grant ‘silenced’ on bail for over two years as he awaited trial, the pensioners and politicians behind the plot escalated their agenda. Grant used the trial, stalled until after the local and general elections, as an opportunity to finally get answers that the plotters tried to obstruct. The racket tried to portray an isolated incident witnessed by independent witnesses. But it wasn’t an isolated incident. It was the sixth of nine plots typical of dirty politics in New Zealand’s most corrupted community: Rodney. * * * Unleashed delves into decades of political scheming, covering: - New Zealand's biggest corruption case, involving Rodney District Council and Auckland Transport; - What led to the appointment of commissioners to run Rodney District Council; - How Rodney District became part of the Auckland Council ‘Super City’; - Ross Meurant's police and political careers; - Frank Gill, Rob Muldoon, Pacifika dawn raids, Don Brash, race relations, and Orewa speeches; - Colin Craig, the Exclusive Brethren, Chris Penk, and religious political positioning; - The Bevan Chuang/Len Brown scandal; - The Rachel MacGregor/Colin Craig/Jordan Williams scandal; - The Kim Dotcom/John Banks/John Key scandal; - The Cameron Slater/Matt Blomfield scandal; - The David Garrett & Rodney Hide resignations; - The implosion of Act and the rise of the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union; - The Cameron Slater/Simon Lusk/Mark Mitchell scandal; - The Cameron Slater/Simon Lusk/Greg Sayers campaign to roll Penny Webster; - The Greg Sayers/Beth Houlbrooke scandal; - Dodgy decisions from Auckland Council’s planning, roading, biodiversity, animal management, and governance; - Dodgy police conduct, ranging from the Louis Nicholas cases, Operation Austin, IPCA conduct, to Warkworth Police; - The chambers of commerce/council rackets; - The NZ Taxpayers’ Union/Act Party racket; - Media rackets; - Rackets involving the council and ratepayers’ groups; and - The money and influence in Auckland's - and New Zealand's - corridors of power. If there was a political scandal over the past 25 years, the chances are that there was a connection with the Rodney area.