Questions over Cabinet Minister Kiri Allan and the working relationships in her office are the latest ministerial pains for Chris Hipkins.
It was the last thing the Prime Minister needed during his trip to China. Fresh from meeting the three most senior political leaders there, he was forced to front questions about whether his minister had acted inappropriately.
It’s not the first time Hipkins has had to deal with issues in his Cabinet while overseas. Last month, he landed in the UK for King Charles’ coronation to news that Meka Whaitiri had defected to Te Pāti Māori.
Along with losing Whaitiri, he’s also lost Michael Wood for mishandling conflicts of interest, and sacked Stuart Nash for breaking Cabinet collective responsibility and confidentially. Meanwhile, Jan Tinetti has faced the Privileges Committee over whether she deliberately misled Parliament.
The Opposition are saying that the “wheels are falling off the bus”, and while many of these issues pre-date Hipkins’ tenure as Prime Minister, he won’t be immune to the fallout from such a long list of ministerial scandals leading to October’s general election.
Stuart Nash:
On March 15, the then-Police Minister told Newstalk ZB that he called the Police Commissioner in 2021 to suggest Police appeal a sentence Nash regarded as being too soft. He resigned from the Police portfolio. The next day, an email emerged showing the Solicitor-General considered prosecuting Nash for contempt of court in 2020 after he made comments about the right sentence for a case that was yet to be concluded. The next day, it was revealed that Nash lobbied MBIE in 2020 on behalf of a constituent over immigration issues.
Nash told Hipkins he has nothing else of concern on his ledger, but was sacked at the end of March after further emails emerge, from 2020, where Nash divulged private Cabinet discussions to donors.
He is leaving Parliament at the end of this term.
Meka Whaitiri:
On May 3, Whaitiri announced her departure from the Labour Party on her marae in Hastings. It came without warning, and was announced while Hipkins was on his way to the UK to attend King Charles’ coronation. She had a number of ministerial portfolios at the time, including Customs, Food Safety and Veterans.
She had previously been stripped of her ministerial responsibilities - in 2018 - after an altercation with her press secretary, but was reinstated as a minister after the 2020 election.
She later said that the change in leadership, from Dame Jacinda Ardern to Hipkins, had played a role in her decision to defect: “The last prime minister had a completely different style, but I felt the voice of Māori members of Labour were actually canvassed and were given time. The current leadership has a different style, obviously concerned around the up-and-coming election to win back the middle vote.
“I could see that being played out at the beginning of the year when the changes first happened. I bided my time, I contributed as I normally would do, but I could see an erosion of things we had built up.”
In October she will stand for Te Pāti Māori in the Ikaroa-Rawhiti seat.
Jan Tinetti:
The Education Minister was referred to Parliament’s Privileges Committee at the end of May for not correcting a false statement quickly enough.
Tinetti told the House in February she had no responsibility for the release of school attendance data. She was told later that day by staff did, in fact, have input into the timing of the release. But Tinetti only corrected the record on May 2, 14 sitting days later.
Speaker Adrian Rurawhe said Tinetti didn’t think she needed to correct the answer in the House until she received a letter from Rurawhe on May 1 telling her she did.
Tinetti appeared before the committee on June 8, saying she deeply regretted the error and that waiting so long to correct the record was “an incorrect judgment to make”.
Today the committee released its report. Tinetti has escaped being held in contempt of Parliament - but was told to formally apologise for her “high degree of negligence” in misleading the House.
Michael Wood:
Wood’s demise started with a Herald story on June 6 revealing the Transport Minister’s failure to adequately declare his shares in Auckland Airport. It emerges that he had told the Cabinet Office repeatedly he would sell the shares, but had yet to do so. In all, there were 16 interactions between the Cabinet Office and Wood’s office since November 2020, yet Wood failed to divest himself of the shares.
Wood sells his airport shares two days later and assures Hipkins that he has no other potential conflicts of interest concerning his financial affairs. He resigns, on June 21, after further shareholdings and potential conflicts of interest emerge.
These were held in the JM Fairey Family Trust, of which he is both a trustee and a beneficiary. The trust holds shares in Chorus, Spark and the National Australia Bank, raising conflict of interest issues because Wood, as Immigration Minister, had made decisions regarding visas for telecommunications workers, and, as a Cabinet Minister, had been party to discussions about a market study into the banks.
In resigning, Wood said none of his ministerial decisions were influenced by his financial interests. He remains the MP for Mt Roskill and has not yet said whether he will stand for re-election.
Kiri Allan:
A Stuff report yesterday revealed “concerns” - raised by the Department of Conservation over a year ago - about working relationships in the minister’s office, with one staffer ending their secondment early.
Today she said there had been no formal complaints about her office: “I’ve never, ever had any allegations put to me that I’ve had to deal with on a staffing front - none.”
In April, Allan had to apologise after criticising RNZ and its treatment of Māori staff at a private event hosted by the broadcaster to farewell Dunlop, who was the Midday Report presenter.
Shortly after, 1News revealed then-Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon had donated to Allan’s political campaign. While it came before Allan was Justice Minister, after she became minister she had responsibility for Human Rights Commissioners, and should have declared the potential perceived conflict with the Cabinet Office.
Derek Cheng is a senior journalist for the Herald and a former Deputy Political Editor, whose stints in the Press Gallery in Parliament covered parts of the Helen Clark, John Key, and Jacinda Ardern governments.
The Resources Minister came to the select committee sporting a Make NZ Great Again hat.