Cam Slater: Has He Resigned or Not?

On Friday the Associate Justice Minister, Deborah Russell, announced that the Race Relations Commissioner, Meng Foon, had resigned from his position and that if he hadn’t resigned he would be sacked because of his undeclared conflicts of interest.

It is a complete mess, with the Associate Minister having to make the decision and announcement because Justice Minister Kiri Allen has her own conflict of interest issues, with Meng Foon effectively being her landlord at her electorate office and also donating to her campaign.

It’s an utter shemozzle – made worse by Meng Foon declaring that he hasn’t resigned at all.

Meng Foon, whose resignation as Race Relations Commissioner was revealed last week, says the government’s handling of the matter is an “absolute shambles”.

Foon says he is uncertain whether he has officially resigned or not, and he is waiting to hear from the government about next steps.

The government announced on Friday Foon had tendered his resignation after failing to adequately disclose a conflict of interest relating to more than $2 million paid to a company he was director of, for accommodation including emergency housing.

Foon told RNZ he had on Friday morning emailed the prime minister to warn of his intention to resign on Sunday.

“So, as a courtesy email to the prime minister, I said ‘look, the associate minister [of Justice, Deborah Russell] is deciding, highly probable that she’s going to sack me and so I’m going to resign, and I’ll resign this Sunday’,” he said.

“This is a Meng’s process. Because I’ve been in local government and other organisations, I know the sensitivity of politics, and so it’s always a heads-up with a note, quickly to the prime minister or to ministers – no surprises, this is the topic on hand – and leave it at that.”

However, he did not offer his resignation on Sunday because the news of his resignation had been “leaked” on Friday.

“I’m as confused as you are regarding my resignation,” he said. “The news had already said that I had resigned, so that message must have leaked out into the cosmos somehow.

“Yeah, they need to tell me what the process is … was the one that I sent to the prime minister enough? You know what I mean.”

He said the government’s approach and the process followed had been an “absolute shambles”.

“I’m not quite sure what’s happening and no one’s spoken to me, so I’m just waiting to see what they’re going to do.

“According to my knowledge, I still hold the warrant of the Race Relations Commissioner, they haven’t said that it’s been cancelled or anything. I don’t know, I’ve never been sacked before so it’s quite interesting. I’ve never resigned from anything before either.”

He also continued to dispute the government’s claim he had not declared his interests in the emergency housing provider.

Radio NZ

That is some trough that Foon is clinging to.

It is a complete shambles. It just goes to show Labour have no skills in Human/Employee Relations – they don’t even know how to get rid of someone properly. They need to stay well away from business management.

This mess has ensured at least another week at least of bad headlines for the government. Even if they do sack him, he probably has grounds for a judicial review or a lawsuit on the basis of a predetermined outcome and lack of natural justice.

Now don’t get me wrong: I think he should be sacked, but for his outrageous decisions and comments in the job rather than his dodgy conflicts of interest.

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