Is Stuart Nash (Politics, April 8) merely “unbelievably hapless” (according to Act leader David Seymour) or is his behaviour “akin to insider trading” (according to Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon)?
What is clear is that he is the product of a lobbying environment that lacks transparency, and an old boys’ club where “mate, comrade, brother” trumps “public service”. This is the issue that may get lost.
New Zealand is one of only nine OECD countries surveyed that has no stand-down between being a cabinet minister or similar and becoming a lobbyist. Canada has a five-year stand-down period.
So why the outrage at a sitting cabinet minister sharing confidential information with a couple of his donors, when former ministers Kris Faafoi and Clayton Cosgrove can apparently seamlessly move from years of insider knowledge around the cabinet table to selling that information shortly after leaving cabinet?
And what about Andrew Kirton? One moment he’s general secretary of the Labour Party, nek minnit, big-shot lobbyist for the alcohol industry,
