Immigration Minister Iain Lees Galloway has apparently resigned.
UPDATE: The PM confirms that she has sacked the Minister. He will not stand in the Palmerston North seat in the upcoming general election.
UPDATE: Iain Lees Galloway releases an apology.
Health Minister David Clark has resigned.
No, not in NZ, of course. With bonus notes on a “grotesque folly”.
I/S at No Right Turn writes on the early “resignation” of Ombudsman Ron Paterson – following his highly critical report on the Rebstock “inquiry”.
UPDATED: Northland MP Mike Sabin has resigned.
From “There’s no ambiguity. No middle ground. I’m right. He’s wrong”
to
“[Snowden] may well be right” in just 4 days. Impressive.
Can’t say that I blame Longstone for bailing, she was working for a Minister who is clearly well out of her depth. Another fail for Hekia Parata, she’s the one that should be going.
Banks is deadmeat. It’s just a matter of time before Key gives him the boot. Politically, he must. He has grounds, even on the limited ‘ethics while a minister’ test he has created. We’re now just waiting for something sufficiently new that Key can use it as justification for an about face. Then comes the question of a by-election. And that’s where it gets tricky for Key.
Does he believe Banks’ on the Dotcom donation? What corroborating evidence has he sought to confirm Banks statement? Why is he applying a legal test to behaviour before Banks was a minister but ethical standards only after? Why did he apply ethical standards to Pansy Wong’s behaviour before she was a minister but not to Banks? Was it unethical for Banks to lie to the media and fake memory lose while a minister?
John Key has refused to sack John Banks saying “The test is, did he breach the law or not? If he hasn’t, then he’s not guilty”. That has never been the standard ministers are held to. Ministers are required to uphold “the highest ethical standards“. It looks like Banks traded an ‘anonymous’ donation from Kim Dotcom for his political influence. Is that Key’s idea of the “highest ethical standards”?
Key should go because of his dirty deal with SkyCity. Joyce too. Collins should go over the ACC leaks. Brownlee for sheer incompetence. English for shit-eating grin every time he fails to meet his own growth forecasts and announces more cuts. Add Banks to the list. His position in now untenable. The accusations are serious and credible. His excuses and memory lapses implausible. He must at least be stood down.
The ever-growing list of letters, emails, and leaks in the National Party Civil War, that started off as an apparently apolitical privacy breach by ACC, is getting hard to follow. Here’s a summary of the various documents and their ramifications – so far.
National promised to get tough ‘undeserving’ state house tenants. (always someone to get tough on when maintaining the privileges of the elite) The first targets were 3 women and their kids, judged guilty by association with their partners who were charged with burglary (the charges were dropped). 2 years and $1m wasted and the government has given up.
Here’s John Key this morning on Breakfast, talking about Paul Henry’s resignation. Naturally he’s eager to downplay the influence of Kiwi-Indian business and […]
Fran O’Sullivan agrees with my theory on the real reason for Phil Heatley’s resignation and the reason why an excuse was invented. The real reason was what amounts to Heatley’s theft of taxpayer money by using his ministerial credit card, and the receipt excuse was invented to protect Gerry Brownlee who had also misused his credit card
Ministers don’t resign for describing a trivial expense in a perfectly legitimate way. I’m thinking Phil Heatley really had a crisis of conscience over the credit card ‘misuse’ and wanted to resign but that would have put Gerry Brownlee in the gun too. So they invented the receipt excuse. What’s your theory?
How titillating. Worth has resigned and he won’t say why. ‘Personal reasons’ eh? Heard that one before. Key’s not talking either. He describes […]
Link on Stuff. UPDATE: The “personal reasons” we know about so far: He personally profited from his trip to India to discuss aviation training. […]
