Labour MP Stuart Nash will stand down at the election.
Nash became embroiled in scandal last month, first resigning as police minister and then being sacked as a Cabinet minister. He faced scrutiny for breaking Cabinet rules and also overstepping his role as a minister, in conversations with immigration officials and the police commissioner.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins fired Nash as a minister on Tuesday. At the time, he said it was Nash’s choice whether he wanted to seek re-nomination to stand for Napier, or stand down.
Hipkins said he would not be welcoming Nash back to the executive again, after it emerged he emailed business figures, including donors, details of private Cabinet discussions.
“While the work has been very rewarding, and both intellectually and professionally stimulating, it has also been incredibly taxing on relationships with family and friends. It’s now time to address this balance,” he said.
Ruh roh! Talking about the toll on families and friends – sounds like Nash is doing the age-old risk mitigation of rather more damaging issues coming out.
It’s a tried and true tactic: take yourself off the playing field before you are taken off forcibly. All the while hoping the dirty laundry doesn’t get aired.
He knows it is coming, he’s just trying to mitigate it.
Labour know it is coming, because they set the ball rolling on it themselves, which is why Chris Hipkins is waving a crackdown on lobbyists all over the place as a distraction from Nash’s problems.
It just goes to show though, that when journalists actually do their jobs, as the now sober Guyon Espiner has done over lobbying, then real change can happen, real fast.
Make no mistake, Labour are in damage control, which is why all these huge distractions are being pulled out of the hat.
But what will they use to distract media and the public when the next scandal hits? They’ve got nothing in the tank except mountains of debt to bribe voters with, leaving future generations to pick up the tab.
They say desperation is a stinky cologne, and the whiff is now rather pungent.
Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. This article was first published HERE
2 comments:
He was also about to be hung out fro the slash fiasco. Now he has an excuse to largely dodge all that.
They run scuttling to leave a sinking ship. Don't let it rest, unravel this five year fiasco in its sixth year.
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