Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Nick Smith Must Go

So a woman has problems with ACC, and just happens to be a personal friend of the ACC Minister at the time. The said ACC Minister writes a letter to ACC in support of the woman.

The said ACC Minister then denies any conflict of interest.

It's all here.

Could a minister of the Crown really be stupid enough to write such a letter? To put something like this in writing?

Apparently so. What's more staggering is that Nick Smith is now denying any conflict of interest.

This is the sort of conduct National would have been demanding heads over had it occurred during Helen Clark's time in charge. The word "corruption" loses its meaning when used to describe any sort of misconduct by those holding office, but I'm sure that word would be in liberal use among National's MPs and pet bloggers had a Labour minister engaged in such conduct.

Whatever label we want to use, it cannot be disputed that Dr Smith has acted in a highly inappropriate manner. If he has any remaining credibility he will resign.

So will he resign? I think you already know the answer to that question.

Update: He did - eventually!
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6 comments:

  1. It is said that the letter was written on the Minister's letterhead. He says it was written in a "personal" capacity. The PM is relaxed and said that he had listened to the said woman's "woes" at various functions.
    So there is no story here. Is there?

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  2. Agree. Nothing to see here folks, keep moving.

    Stinks to high heaven !

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  3. Agree. NO story at all. EXCEPT in 2010 you will all remember Dr Nick Smith ended up in court being sued for defamation... whilst it was settled out of court - it still cost you & thee his court costs which were paid by Parliamentary Services had contributed $122,000 towards the then total of $270,000 in costs. PM John Key said the Nelson MP had acted in what he thought was the best interest of New Zealanders and the use of taxpayer funds was ‘totally legitimate’.

    And so on it goes ... gee that is what we all do - no? Act in the best interests of ourselves (oh) sorry our country?

    No - no story at all. Diana & Friends

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3256811/Nick-Smith-faces-trial-in-June

    ReplyDelete

  4. Yeah its a bit rich for Dr Nick to be going all "Rodney Hide" on the propriety of local government spending and debt when he's writing 'personal explanations' on his Minister of ACC letterhead to the ACC CEO about a Nat. Party insider chum's ACC claim.
    No wonder Key demoted him in the new rankings.

    I texted Morning Report today "IF Nick Smith wants to ensure NZ never hosts another Rugby World Cups, then his local government reforms are perfect".

    "Its..time..for..him..to..go..!"

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  5. And Michelle Boag is being less than truthfull when she claims to no longer be connected with the National Party and not having been so for a decade. She was all over Nicky Kaye's election campaign in 2008. That is not a decade.

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  6. And, of course, he was found guilty of contempt of court in 2004. Is there a pattern here?

    ReplyDelete

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