The Prime Minister
John.key@parliament.govt.nz
Dear John
You have on a number of occasions ruled out having Sir Roger Douglas as a member of a National led cabinet, the most recent being this morning on Radio New Zealand (RNZ).
You stated on RNZ that the reason for excluding Sir Roger was his “far right agenda” is at odds with the policies of the National Party .
You are of course free to choose who you include or exclude from your executive and I have no issue whatsoever with you exercising that choice.
Could you please advise if there are sufficient differences between Mr Hone Harawira’s political views and the policies of the National Party for you to make a similar statement ruling him out of any future National led cabinet over which you preside.
Yours faithfully
Frank Newman
[NOTE: The Prime Minister’s reply will be posted on this blog.]
11 comments:
Sad commentary on the times we live in when a right wing MP cannot participate in a National government. It's OK to have a racist MP in the mix though....In truth, we elected Labour Lite, though they certainly did not sell themselves that way.
Charles
When did Harawera become a minister?
Update: No acknowledgement or response received from the Prime Minister.
Frank
Did you really expect one??
Yes, and I have re-sent the letter to the PM today.
NO acknowledgement received to date so the email has today been sent as a formal letter.
UPDATE: Still no acknowledgement from the PM. Have resent the letter today and will distrbute to the daily newspapers as a letter to the editor if it continues to be ignored.
Still no response received. I have today written to the Prime MInister's secretary:
"The Secretary to the Prime Minister
Dear Sir / Madam
On 23 September 2010 I emailed the Prime Minister with a simple question.
No response to or acknowledgement of my communication was received so on 1 October 2010 the email was resent.
As no response to this second communication was received, on 5 October 2010 I sent the email as a formal letter.
As no response to or acknowledgement of my letter was received on 26 October 2010 the letter was resent.
It is now the 15th of November 2010 and still my communications remain unanswered.
I appreciate the Prime Minister is a busy person, but as a leader I would have assumed he would be able to delegate a response.
Could you please respond to my communications. For expedience, I have repeated my communication as a footnote.
Should I not receive a response I will assume the Prime Minister does not wish to respond.
Yours faithfully,
Frank Newman"
Day 63, still no reponse to my email and the 4 reminders. I have just phoned the Prime Minister's office and asked if I can expect a reponse. The lovely lady said, yes definately, the person I should speak to is just about to go into a 2pm meeting, but they would phone me back. And yes, that would be this afternoon, I was assured.
Yesterday sent another email to the PM:
Dear Prime Minister
Further to my earlier requests seeking a response to my communication of 23 September 2010. I again request an acknowledgement.
My most recent attempt to receive a response was a phone call to your office on 25 November 2010. I was assured someone would phone back that day. No one has.
Is it really too much to ask for a communication to be acknowledged? Others in Parliament seems to be able to do so.
I understand 21 days is the guideline for response, which would have been 14th October.
I look forward to receiving a response.
... and received the following reply...
"Dear Mr Newman
On behalf of the Prime Minister, Rt Hon John Key, I acknowledge your email of 23 September.
It is the Prime Minister's prerogative to discuss and decide the membership of Cabinet, on this occasion he is not going to enter into speculation.
Thank you for writing.
Regards..."
This is the reply I had expected, but does raise the obvious question as to why John Key is prepared to speculate on the future of Sir Roger Douglas but not Hone Harawira.
I won't ask the PM - it will just take too long to receive a reply!
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