The NZ Prime Minister Derelict in Duty

The Corrupt "First Citizen" of Northland

New Zealand is rapidly losing its status as a corruption free society.  We now have a government where the Prime Minister parades in a hijab to make a point while her ministers engage in corrupt practice without consequence.

It's bizarre.  It's also nauseating. 

New Zealand loves to take the high moral ground on lots of issues and matters.  For example, we tell ourselves that we would never stoop to the low corruption of Justin Trudeau, PM of Canada.  Yet, now, when confronting the same bald-faced effrontery in our own country, we sniff like the proverbial Pharisee and pass by on the other side of the road, nostrils blocked and eyes averted.

This, from the NZ Herald:

NZ First's Shane Jones has stepped into the middle of legal action between the NZ Transport Agency and Northland's biggest logging transport operator, even though he holds the portfolio of Associate Transport Minister.  Jones said he was speaking as the Regional Economic Development Minister when he expressed concern to the Herald about a case between the NZ Transport Agency and Semenoff Logging.

"I'm concerned about the economic implications flowing from issues between NZTA and Semenoff Logging," Jones said, following a High Court decision last Monday where the transporter won temporary suspension of a ban on its licence.  On March 15, NZTA revoked Semenoff's transport services licence over a range of safety issues, due to take effect on March 22.

But on March 20, the business of the ex-Whangarei mayor Stan Semenoff hit back and sought a temporary stay on that licence ban, although the case is yet to go to a full hearing.  Justice Mark Woolford said in his March 25 decision in the High Court at Auckland that the Whangarei company is "the largest logging haulage company in Northland ... responsible for 50 per cent of Northland's wood flow and log haulage."

Jones is a Minister of the Crown.
  One of the crown agencies for which he has responsibility is the NZ Transport Agency.  This agency is in the middle of a prosecution of one of Jones's mates, Stan Semenoff.  Jones has stepped in to support publicly his "old friend".  He claims that a thousand jobs might be at stake if  Stan were made to keep the transport laws, rules, and regulations. 

Jones said his concern was over the agency's court action last month.  That saw Semenoff's licence revoked and followed two audits revealing 116 speed and traffic-related offences in four years, a high percentage of vehicles failing on brake system faults, driver fatigue and behaviour, breaches of work time and rest time rules and pervasive logbook issues.

Jones then takes a leaf out of Justin Trudeau's playbook.  He is interfering with court processes and judgements because jobs may be lost.

Jones said: "Constitutionally, I must not comment on the High Court case. Both parties are entitled to state their views before the court. On the question of regional development, obviously, forestry is a key and jobs are incredibly important to our growth. 

 "I'm concerned about the future of 1000 jobs in Northland which could be on the line due to the High Court case. The High Court case doesn't prohibit the first citizen of the provinces from advocating on behalf of economic development.

David Farrar, of Kiwblog, hammers home the point:

This is entirely inappropriate. No Minister should be commenting on independent prosecution or regulatory safety decisions. Even worse Jones is an Associate Transport Minister so his public statements can only be seen as public pressure on an agency he has some ministerial responsibility for.  

You’re not the effing first citizen of anything. You’re the Associate Minister of Transport attacking a decision by NZTA made on safety grounds.

“I’m concerned about the future of 1000 jobs in Northland which could be on the line due to the High Court case. The High Court case doesn’t prohibit the first citizen of the provinces from advocating on behalf of economic development."

The argument about being concerned about jobs is the exact one Justin Trudeau made when he tried to pressure the Canadian attorney-General not to prosecute a company that was a major employer in Trudeau’s home province.

Enter, stage left, a delicate female in a hijab, who proceeds to tip-toe past the malodorous Jones, eyes averted, face covered.  Why, it's our Prime Minister, Jones's boss.  As she passes, she mutters an incantation along the lines of, "I am pure.  I see no evil, I speak no evil."   

Wrong doing, it seems is something other people do, not her own ministers, her own government.  They are special people, with special license to pervert the course of justice.