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Original image of SBW: Phil Walter/Getty
Original image of SBW: Phil Walter/Getty

PoliticsMarch 13, 2019

Shaney Bill Williams plays offside in attack on journalist

Original image of SBW: Phil Walter/Getty
Original image of SBW: Phil Walter/Getty

Shane Jones is under pressure over a Provincial Growth Fund conflict of interest. He’s attempted to turn defence into attack with typical immodesty, even comparing himself to one of NZ’s top sportsmen and launching a bizarre ‘bunny boiler’ slur on a journalist, writes Guyon Espiner

Shane Jones likened himself to Sonny Bill Williams on Morning Report this week. Not in physique, mind you. There are limits, even to the immodesty of the self-proclaimed First Citizen of the Provinces, the wandering bard with the bag of pūtea, bestowing largesse on the forgotten hamlets of Aotearoa.

The comparison Jones was making was that he is to politics what Sonny Bill Williams is to rugby – someone with extraordinary gifts and talent. So much so that when he turns up somewhere people naturally expect he is going to run things.

“Everyone wants Sonny Bill in their team,” he said on Morning Report. It was his way of explaining why Manea Kupe Ltd, a Northland tourism venture, wrote to MBIE in 2015 saying Jones would be the chairman. A media report at the time, unchallenged by Jones, said the same thing.

No one would care about that – Jones was out of parliament at the time – except that now the trust has been given nearly $5 million from the Provincial Growth Fund that Jones presides over.

Having declared a conflict of interests, Jones then attended a ministerial meeting in February 2018 where the project was discussed. He says he was there only to provide “facts” but officials record that he went further than that, providing “assurances” about the trust’s governance structures, which allayed Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s concerns and allowed him to sign up to it.

While it’s probably a line call at that point – and the prime minister says Jones should have actually left the room – what follows seems to be pretty clear cut.

On 30 April – well after the 12 February ministerial meeting – Jones is asked a written question by National’s Paul Goldsmith, asking what meetings he’s had relating to the project.

Jones replies that because of his conflict of interests he’s left the decision to other ministers and “as such, I have had no formal meetings regarding the Manea Footprints of Kupe project”.

Such omissions can end ministerial careers. Ask Clare Curran, who had to exit Cabinet for failing to disclose her meetings.

It matters because full disclosure about the spending of public money is at the core of a strong democracy.

Like Sonny Bill, the defensive game from Jones has been aggressive and entertaining, although he sometimes plays the man rather than the ball.

He labelled the Stuff journalist who broke the story, Hamish Rutherford, a “bunny boiler”. The Fatal Attraction reference – to a woman, or in this case a man, scorned  – seems to relate to the fact that Rutheford stayed at his house a few years back and now has the temerity to write stories scrutinising the minister’s actions.

The bunny boiler barb raised some chuckles but the interview took a darker turn with Jones telling RNZ he would use parliamentary privilege to continue his attack on the journalist.

So where’s the ref or even the captain? The prime minister is largely on the sidelines watching Jones perform.

There was a gentle admonishment for Jones for not leaving the room when the project was discussed. But on Morning Report this week, Jacinda Ardern wasn’t prepared to say he had been misleading in answering questions. Jones now says he’ll take advice from parliament’s speaker Trevor Mallard as to whether he needs to correct the record.

Remember, Jones had to correct 20 answers to parliamentary written questions last year, some of which related to people he met with an interest in the PGF.

But Jones is not going to suffer the fate of Clare Curran. Jones doesn’t get the red card. He’s got the “get out of jail free” card. He’s answerable only to Winston Peters. And Peters is enjoying the show.

And who could blame him? Everyone wants Sonny Bill on their team and all the better if he can play without interference from a pesky referee.

Keep going!
Simon Bridges is  downplaying speculation that Ngaro will form a Christian party.
Simon Bridges is downplaying speculation that Ngaro will form a Christian party.

PoliticsMarch 13, 2019

Nightmare scenario for Simon Bridges as Jami-Lee Ross complaint referred to SFO

Simon Bridges is  downplaying speculation that Ngaro will form a Christian party.
Simon Bridges is downplaying speculation that Ngaro will form a Christian party.

After happily attacking the government on capital gains tax for the past few weeks, Simon Bridges finds himself again on the back foot, writes Jane Patterson in this post originally published by RNZ.

The police investigation that had been bubbling away in the background has now exploded into a Serious Fraud Office investigation, with the National Party front and centre.

Reporters had been regularly checking in with the police to see how the police investigation was proceeding but the SFO referral took everyone by surprise – including Bridges, who was hit with the news just minutes before he was due to address the weekly press gallery scrum in the National Party corridors.

The details about exactly what the SFO is looking into are still sketchy, but it all tracks back to the police complaint laid in dramatic fashion by Ross in October, as part of his campaign to take down his former leader.

That related to a $100,000 donation Ross said had been discussed between himself and Bridges back in 2017, and how it could be kept secret.

Ross now says the money arrived into the National Party’s Botany bank account in amounts less than $15,000, so the donation did not have to be declared in the party’s annual return to the Electoral Commission.

He made a number of other allegations – all of which have been vehemently denied by Bridges.

One was that Bridges had knowingly filed a false election return for a donation from a group called the Cathedral Club, a donation later removed from Bridges’ return.

National was also accused of “cash for candidates” after Ross released a phone conversation between himself and Bridges discussing the donation and a potential Chinese candidate on the party list

SFO investigations involving MPs or political parties are unusual, but when it does happen it’s accompanied by less than flattering media attention.

Bridges’ first reaction was to try to distance himself completely, saying it was not a matter for him personally but one for party officials to deal with; the implication was those officials were ultimately responsible for filing electoral returns so any responsibility lay with them.

The SFO only says in the statement it had received the referral “in relation to the disclosure of political donations under the Electoral Act” which points squarely to National, and the people involved with it.

But there was nothing from the police or the SFO that explicitly excluded Bridges.

Both authorities issued statements saying the investigation had been referred to the SFO but with few other details.

The SFO is known for investigating complex cases of financial crime, usually with big sums of money involved – it describes itself as “the lead law enforcement agency for investigating and prosecuting serious or complex financial crime, including bribery and corruption”.

But it also has the capacity to take into account “any relevant public interest considerations”. The police also noted the SFO holds “the appropriate mandate to look further into matters raised by the investigation to date” – make of that what you will.

Ross told reporters that from his interaction with the police he believed the SFO had become involved because it had the capability and the power to follow the money trail.

No evidence that directly links Bridges to any wrongdoing in relation to donations has been presented, but the political taint remains.

The storm that Ross whipped up last year had dissipated, with a slight flurry when he returned to parliament.

The best case scenario for National was that the police dropped the investigation and the donations controversy would, for all intents and purposes, have been over.

The worst case scenario could be starting to unfold, just as Bridges was starting to put real pressure on the government over tax. Once again however, he finds himself firmly on the back foot.

But wait there's more!