Fran O'Sullivan: Grumps bark without bite

John Key. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Surely it is too early in John Key's reign as Prime Minister for his henchmen to establish an informal "enemies" list.

But - judging by the quiet outrage that has emanated from the Beehive in the wake of public criticism of Key's decision to abandon the Middle East trade mission in favour of returning home to New Zealand after three airmen lost their lives in an accident on Anzac Day - that seems to be what is happening.

There has been grovel aplenty in the past few days (and that's just what has taken place in the public space) as out-spoken critics of Key's decision found themselves compelled to "suck it up" if they wanted to maintain political access.

Cognitive Education's John Langley quickly found himself in the dog box when he strongly criticised Key as "short-sighted and irresponsible" for coming back to New Zealand for the memorial service then racing back to Afghanistan for a "photo op" with the troops.

Langley's opinion piece - which was published in the Herald on Wednesday - was clearly honestly held opinion.

It was also the sentiment of a business person who had stumped up considerable cash to go on the NZ Trade and Enterprise organised mission to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait believing that it would cement his firm's considerable business in the region.

But within hours Cognitive Education's chairman, Stewart Germman - who was also on the trip - issued a press release apologising on the company's behalf for Langley's criticism.

"John Key was in a no-win position for whatever he did would be criticised by various people," said Germann.

The Germann press release was what is known in the public relations trade as a "comfort statement".

It is the kind of press release a company might put out if it becomes slightly anxious that telling the truth about the poorly organised trade mission might result in the firm being dropped from NZTE's invitation list next time around or not get as much help in the region as it wants. It is called self-interest.

That's where Germann should have stopped.

But for him to go on and claim that the delegation was an "outstanding success" and had "really put New Zealand on the map" so far as the Gulf Co-operation Council countries were concerned was complete nonsense.

Particularly when the next day's newspapers quoted other mission members speaking frankly of the trip being like a "cross between the Beverly Hillbillies and speed dating", with the mission being embarrassingly late to meetings - some of which were cancelled after the PM bowed out.

Public opinion is relatively evenly split on whether Key should have come home or stayed for the mission.

We don't know whether Key's PR advisers even considered whether in all the circumstances it might have been best to send Trade Minister Tim Groser back to NZ (his mother died during the mission) and deputy Acting Prime Minister Bill English to front in his place at the dead airmen's service.

Grumpy business people have also taken some stick for allegedly putting Mammon over simple humanity.

But what is generally not publicly recognised is that one of the reasons why business people join trail-blazing New Zealand trade missions is to demonstrate to the other nations that their Prime Minister has huge clout and support from leading Kiwi players.

It is not simply a matter of expecting an immediate commercial payback. Hence, NZTE would have gone to considerable lengths to muster an impressive list of companies to go on the Gulf mission to get across the point that New Zealand was serious about doing business.

Another on the Beehive grovel list was NZTE chairman - and acting CEO - Jon Mayson.

Mayson has publicly conceded that the mission was too big and covered too many events in a short time and businesses did not get the "face time" they had expected. He was seeking feedback and reviewing the "quality of people" on the mission.

Frankly, it will be difficult for Mayson to kick butt on this score given the blame must ultimately rest with him.

It's more than seven months since former NZTE boss Tim Gibson announced his resignation as the organisation's CEO. Originally, he was to stay on until a successor was appointed.

But Mayson stepped into his shoes to run NZTE on a "temporary basis" when Gibson left just before Christmas.

Gibson attracted quite a bit of flak in his last months at NZTE. But it has to be said the organisation did a fine job organising other trade soirees - such as the 200 business people who accompanied former PM Helen Clark to China for the signing of the Chinese free trade deal, and other missions to bed in the opportunities from the Asean and Malaysian FTAs.

The fundamental issue is that NZ Trade and Enterprise is rudderless, not that some business people spat the dummy. That's called democracy.