Why Labour is starting to look a little grubby – Stuff

Andrea Vance is a senior Stuff journalist and regular Sunday Star-Times columnist.

OPINION: Its usually the third term before the rot sets in.

Labour is displaying early symptoms of third term-itis, a kind of arrogance and complacency that can be fatal to future electoral success.

The longer they spend in office, the more a government start to look a little grubby. And there is nothing dirtier than money in politics.

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Stuart Nash emailed two donors about a confidential cabinet discussion. They were commercial property owners who had an interest in the decision.

His office then refused to disclose this information a breach of official information laws, in which the then-prime ministers office was complicit.

It was his fourth strike, and Nash was out. Donations from the forestry industry, which he went on to regulate as minister, were already controversial but there was never any suggestion of impropriety.

Chris McKeen/Stuff

Minister of Justice Kiri Allan apologised after criticising Radio NZ at an event for one of its outgoing staff members.

He had a parting shot, quoting Theodore Roosevelt. It is not the critic who counts...the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.

Using the words of the former US president, Nash appeared to be taking issue with those cold and timid souls in the media, who had pointed out his breaches of Cabinet standards.

To draw heat out of the scandal, PM Chris Hipkins changed the narrative by pretending to fix a problem that was never really there.

With Trumpian-level gaslighting, he promised transparency and vigilance around lobbyists and their relationships with politicians.

The real issue of influence in politics comes from the fact that we have a fundraising regime that sells access to the highest bidder and outdated, compromised freedom of information laws that allow politicians (and their officials) to cover it up.

I can promise you ministers are much more likely to pick up the phone to a donor, than scratch the back of a colleague-turned-shill begging a favour.

But sure. Take away the swipe cards that allow a handful of professional schmoozers to sip burnt coffee in Parliaments cafe. Thatll fix it.

If youve been paying attention, youll know a review is code for make it go away until the public forget about it.

Chris McKeen/Stuff

With Trumpian-level gaslighting, Hipkins changed the narrative.

Still, once government starts to go off, the smell lingers in the nostrils.

It soon emerged another minister had broken Cabinet manual rules. Kiri Allan criticised Radio NZ's treatment of Mori reporters and urged the public broadcaster to examine its culture during a farewell event for her fiance, outgoing RNZ broadcaster Mni Dunlop.

The legislation that establishes editorial independence of the public broadcaster stipulates that no minister can give it direction in that way. The Cabinet manual makes it clear ministers must conduct themselves at all times in the knowledge that their role is a public one.

Allan sincerely apologised, and PM Hipkins took no further action.

On Friday, it emerged Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon gave about $10,000 (in cash and in kind through a rent subsidy) to Allan ahead of the 2020 election. (He also gave $1000 to National's East Coast electorate.)

Ex-Gisborne mayor Foon was appointed in July 2019, by the Labour Government but not Allan, who was then a backbencher. However, she is now Justice Minister, and holds the power of appointment.

Foons position is now probably untenable. As a former politician he should have identified that his donations were inappropriate while he held a supposedly apolitical role, charged with holding the Government to account.

MPs should not be taking money from state servants, and Allan should never have accepted the donation. It must immediately be repaid.

It compromises the neutrality of the public service in the eyes of the public. But that will worry Labour less than the damage it does to its own image.

This drip feed of mini-scandals have common threads. They paint a picture of a cosy elite bound by mutual back-scratching, most of which happens within the limits of the law, but that dont quite pass the voters sniff test.

Power eventually corrupts. And once that happens, it's really hard to get the stink out.

What do you think? Email sundayletters@stuff.co.nz.

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Why Labour is starting to look a little grubby - Stuff