NZ First MP Shane Jones. Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

PoliticsApril 5, 2019

A brave attempt to count every Shane Jones mini-scandal over 18 short months

Staff Writer

NZ First MP Shane Jones. Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

With the possible exception of Phil Twyford, no minister has generated more headlines over the current government’s term than Shane Jones. And a lot of them aren’t good headlines at all. So how does he keep surviving?

The charmed career of Shane Jones continued on breezily this week. Despite opening up yet another target around perceived conflicts of interest for the opposition to aim at, there has been no suggestion whatsoever that he could be on the verge of being sacked.

The full facts of this latest one are worth going through. On the face of them, they make up an interesting case. Shane Jones, the self-described First Citizen of the Provinces, has spoken up with concerns about a matter before the High Court. Semenoff Logging is facing loss of their license to operate trucks pending an appeal, based on a very large number of road rule breaches. And Jones is concerned that 1000 jobs could be lost as a result. So far, not a huge amount of drama.

Only, with every layer that gets pulled back, eyebrows get raised further. He’s the regional economic development minister, so mentioning an ongoing court case at all is questionable – he says he hasn’t commented on the working of it at all. Perhaps more importantly, he’s the associate transport minister, and the case is being brought by NZTA. Also, company owner Stan Semenoff has been a donor in the past, and they’re actually distantly related through his mother too for good measure. Finally, it’s in a region of the country where NZ First has heavily targeted both a large chunk of their electoral efforts, and big money from the provincial growth fund. Jones completely denies any conflict of interest, which makes it all an astonishing series of coincidences.

The opposition are utterly apoplectic about it, as they so often are when something seems to go wrong involving Shane Jones. But if this time is like the last dozen times something has happened that raises questions of competency or judgement, absolutely no consequences will be suffered. It might be because nothing untoward has actually happened. Or it might be because it remains politically impossible for the PM to get rid of him, whether she wanted to or not. NZ First is too powerful, and Shane Jones and Winston Peters are clearly very loyal to each other.

Does a dozen seem like an exaggeration? It’s a best guess figure for how many times Shane Jones has said or done something which might make you wonder if he’s bound by the same standards of discipline as the rest of the Cabinet. There have been enough that it’s easy to forget what most of them actually were. And in each case, there has been a rebuttal from Shane Jones.

Just in case you have forgotten any, here’s a handy list to keep track of them, from before the Semenoff saga started. Some feel scandalous. Others are just a bit sloppy. All of them have so far been survivable.

Declared a conflict of interest in a provincial growth fund (PGF) decision, then sat in on the meeting, “giving reassurances” about the governance of the project.
Later attacked the journalist who broke the story, Hamish Rutherford, making threats to reveal information about him.
Had an outburst against then-Fonterra chairman John Wilson, telling him to “take the next cab out of town”.
Also had an outburst against the decisions of Air NZ, in terms of shutting down regional routes, causing the airline to fire back that their independence would not be compromised.
Got into a war of words with Greenpeace’s Russel Norman over appearing to support Talley’s, the fishing giant that was facing a prosecution. Talley’s also donated $10,000 to Shane Jones’ campaign during the 2017 election.
Failed to disclose dozens of PGF meetings over an extended period of time, and had to correct 20 answers to questions from National.
Was involved in a triangle of lobbying around an exemption for a luxury development, with the other points of the triangle being economic development minister David Parker, and enthusiastic golfer Sir John Key.
Had to freeze a regional development initiative, around a waste to energy plant linked to someone who was in the sights of the Serious Fraud Office. Ministry officials took the rap for that one, even though they had actually warned him about serious flaws in the project.
Not necessarily Shane Jones’ fault, but there was that time that $160,000 worth of tree seedlings for the billion tree programme had to be mulched, because the land to plant them on wasn’t good enough.
Was attacked by National, when one of the really early things PGF money was spent on was a roundabout near Shane Jones’ house.
Presided over just 54 jobs being created by the PGF in a year of operation, though the number is understood to be higher now. Jones contends it’s actually over 500. But of course, that’s a three year allocation for the PGF and next year, 2020, the third year of this term, would be a great year to spend up large for no particular reason.
Boasted about plans for a “Work for the Dole” programme, making life difficult for his coalition partners.
Speaks in weird riddles and parables at every opportunity, though in fairness that one is funny.

Keep going!

PoliticsApril 4, 2019

End this madness: why we should stop turning our clocks back for the winter

Hayden Donnell

Contributing writer

New Zealand’s insistence on changing its clocks twice a year doesn’t make sense, and it needs to stop, argues Hayden Donnell.

This Sunday morning, New Zealanders will dutifully carry out a great collective act of self-destruction. As is tradition, we will ensure every clock in the country goes back an hour at 2am, from our automatically updating phones to the Auckland Town Hall clock that doubles as a huge bee palace. In doing so, we will have needlessly ruined both Time and Daylight yet again.

Why are we doing this to ourselves? It doesn’t have to be this way. European Parliament representatives recently voted by an overwhelming majority to direct countries to adopt either permanent summertime – Daylight Saving Time in New Zealand – or permanent wintertime. They were criticised as aspiring “Time Lords” over the move by British Tory representatives, whose party is currently engaged in a protracted and passionate mission to make Brexit worse. New Zealand should always do the opposite of whatever British Conservatives are doing. We must follow Europe, abolish our nonsensical and disruptive biannual time adjustments, and keep our country on summertime year-round.

The benefit of Daylight Saving Time is obvious: it maximises the best part of the day at the expense of the worst. Its start date, September 30, marks the unofficial launch of barbecue season; of wearing togs sometimes and going outside to do things. For the low cost of an hour of daylight when most of us are sleeping anyway, people can claw back some of the sunshine their dayjob has stolen from them. They can get home, drink a beer, and enjoy their evening.

The argument for ending Daylight Saving Time on April 7 is that if we don’t, sunrise arrives too late during winter. On our shortest day, June 22, the sun rises around 7.30am. Keeping summertime in place would shift that to 8.30am. That would upset farmers, who don’t like to milk their cows in the dark, and arguably disrupt the routine of small children whose sleep is guided by daylight.

With all due respect, who cares? Why are we all suffering for the sake of some sensitive cows? Why does it matter if the mornings are darker during winter? Mornings are meant to be dark. They’re born in Satan’s belly; infused with the nightmares of the night before. Our re-entry into the waking world is almost uniformly awful, informed by a concoction of physical discomfort and a dawning remembering of our disappointments. Some people, including Spinoff boss Duncan Greive, will tell you they like mornings. Those people are lying to themselves in order to deal with the horrors of their reality. Mornings are terrible. Darkness is their natural accompaniment.

Sunrises, on the other hand, are allegedly beautiful. Most of us wouldn’t know. Like a Near Death Experience, sunrises are a beauty only available to us in the most harrowing of circumstances. Moving sunrise to 8.33am in the shortest winter days would allow more New Zealanders to appreciate their majesty. They would be an early glimmer of hope – a signal that the work day you’re just embarking on will eventually end, and summer will one day arrive.

Instead of that, we have a situation where many people arrive at work in barely lifted darkness and return home again in the descending black. The cows may be calmer, but in June many of us are fighting off a mixture of Seasonal Affective Disorder and vitamin D deficiency.

The truth is all the arguments for keeping Daylight Saving Time during summer also apply to winter. Maybe we won’t be able to have barbecues at the beach if we keep our clocks an hour forward, but we’ll at least be able to sip wine in the kitchen while we watch the sun set behind the neighbours’ hedge. As a bonus our circadian rhythms will go unmolested.

In 2007, New Zealand introduced a three-week extension to Daylight Saving Time. It was a move championed by United Future leader Peter Dunne, and will go down as perhaps his greatest political achievement. But it didn’t go far enough. Just as the Civil Union Bill 2004 eventually gave way to the full glory of legal gay marriage, the Time Act 1974 needs to be amended to emphasise New Zealand’s year-round commitment to keeping Daylight Saving.

We shouldn’t need to make our winters a little worse for the sake of some jittery cows. We should instead act to create a better New Zealand: a New Zealand where future generations don’t know what Jon Toogood was going on about when he sang “put your clock back for the winter” on ‘Home Again’; where they won’t have even heard the words Daylight Saving Time.

Instead they’ll just call it time.