National looks out for its loyal soldier
The first political hit of the new season is in. National's Maori Affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee is demanding new Labour list MP Shane Jones quits as chairman of Te Ohu Kaimoana, the successor to the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission.
Apart from the obvious - that National rates Jones a threat - what is going on here?
Jones says Te Ohu is now an administrative body, shorn of the political contention and workload of the allocation debate.
"Te Ohu is a completely private body, and I am staying at the encouragement of the current directors," says Jones.
Last week Jones stepped down as chairman of Sealord, the fishing company half-owned by Maori through the fisheries settlement, to avoid potential commercial conflicts of interest. He was replaced by another former commissioner, Business Roundtable chairman Rob McLeod. Former Fonterra chief executive Craig Norgate also joined the Sealord board.
One Te Ohu director who is not encouraging Jones to stay is former National Party Maori vice president Wira Gardiner, who was put on the commission by Parekura Horomia in what seems to be some misguided eruption of tribal loyalty.
Labour's willingness to put Gardiner in sensitive positions is irrational. Party president Mike Williams told me it is because Gardiner is "competent". This is confusing activity for outcomes. The former lieutenant-colonel's style is aggressive reorganisation, which never get to problems of substance and have negligible positive outcomes for Maori.
The fact National's first major attack is on behalf of Lieutenant-Colonel Gardiner should wake Labour up to what the problem they have create for themselves by putting political foes into politically sensitive positions.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10348537
Apart from the obvious - that National rates Jones a threat - what is going on here?
Jones says Te Ohu is now an administrative body, shorn of the political contention and workload of the allocation debate.
"Te Ohu is a completely private body, and I am staying at the encouragement of the current directors," says Jones.
Last week Jones stepped down as chairman of Sealord, the fishing company half-owned by Maori through the fisheries settlement, to avoid potential commercial conflicts of interest. He was replaced by another former commissioner, Business Roundtable chairman Rob McLeod. Former Fonterra chief executive Craig Norgate also joined the Sealord board.
One Te Ohu director who is not encouraging Jones to stay is former National Party Maori vice president Wira Gardiner, who was put on the commission by Parekura Horomia in what seems to be some misguided eruption of tribal loyalty.
Labour's willingness to put Gardiner in sensitive positions is irrational. Party president Mike Williams told me it is because Gardiner is "competent". This is confusing activity for outcomes. The former lieutenant-colonel's style is aggressive reorganisation, which never get to problems of substance and have negligible positive outcomes for Maori.
The fact National's first major attack is on behalf of Lieutenant-Colonel Gardiner should wake Labour up to what the problem they have create for themselves by putting political foes into politically sensitive positions.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10348537
posted by Adam at 10:16 am
3 Comments:
Adam: Don't worry about the Adolf Fiinkensein virus, it's spam generated from the American Embassy in Wellington.
If you want to hypertext try putting:
in front of the link, then
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then the highlighted bit, and
to close it.
Or maybe that's the long way?
That should be putting:
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... and ending with
< / a >
(spaces changed to prevent it spazzing out)
Oh - gap between the a and the h.
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