The perk buster has been caught with his snout in the trough.
The man who built his political career campaigning against rorts real and imagined is selling political access to himself as a Minister to raise money for the ACT party.
ACT has invited Environment Canterbury councillors and others to a breakfast on 4 November at $45 a pop to hear ACT Party Leader and Local Government Minister Rodney Hide talk about the future of local government. Here’s the invitation.
This is a misuse of Hide’s role as Minister of Local Government. Why should the people of New Zealand, let alone elected councillors, have to shell out $45 to hear the Minister talk about his portfolio?
If he was speaking just as the ACT Leader and talking about politics generally I don’t think anyone would complain. But as a Minister to charge your stakeholders for the opportunity to hear you talk about your plans for the portfolio. That is just wrong.
Some have asked if this is any different from Prime Ministers (current and former) speaking at fundraisers. The difference is that Hide currently has papers before Cabinet on this very issue and he has targeted people who have a direct interest in the decisions he’s making as Minister. He is using his position as Minister to get people who would otherwise not contribute to Act to pay to hear his views.
When some of the councillors complained, Hide arrogantly called them “a pack of whingers”.
It’s corrupt behaviour by a Minister. Hide should resign.
And the Prime Minister should immediately explain whether he knew about Hide’s shonky fundraising, whether it had his approval, whether he or Hide consulted the Cabinet Manual, and whether other Ministers are going around the country charging audiences to hear them talk about their portfolio responsibilities. Here’s the statement from Phil Goff.
That does sound pretty crooked
I’m glad Goff is speaking out about this.
An update to postings attempting a summary of the Government’s mounting record . . .
1. Nick Smith & ACC: Shambolic
2. World Cup TV rights: Shambles
3. Bill English ripping taxpayers over his allowance and John Key’s earlier precedent: Shameless
4. Maori seats on Auckland Council: Sham
5. Local Govt Ministerial ‘Invitation’ to Fundraiser: Scam
JohnKey’s government is revealing itself to be a real S !
What?
The $45 includes breakfast.
But I guess from Labour you expect to be fed for free as well….
Sow crate bacon and battery eggs for breakfast, no doubt!
Oops, not just Act who has a poor record on that one, is it?
Cactus Kate, Hide said on radio that there “might be” a profit from the fundraiser for ACT. The local ACT dude organising the fundraiser, who happens to be the ACT fundraising co-ordinator according to the Press, admitted that they “have no money”. Join the dots.
Toad – presumably your close resemblence of Mr Hide is just a coincidence…?
This is pretty outrageous. But if Hide has his way, he will be able to meet with local board members from the new super city at their local McDonalds! Breakfast there will be much cheaper than $45 … although I guess Mr Hide could put away a few sausage mcmuffins. That wouldn’t be too good for the coffers.
No body should have to cough up cash as a political donation to talk to a Minister in his role as Minister. The government minister’s role is not for profit in any sort, be it personal or to a political party.
What a bloody waste of $45 I say!
I would pay $45 to not have to hear Rotten Hide speak!
Keep pushing on this Phil, the sooner we see the back of these hard core neo-liberal idiots the better and Hide is their only remianing link to the Big Show…
Good to see Labour doing what it’s supposed to be doing – holding the government to account.
@ Cactus Kate: Last time I bought breakfast I was in Queenstown before the recession where prices were at least double what you’d pay anywhere else. It cost $15 and was more than I could actually eat. Ergo, the profit that ACT are looking at is probably in the order of $30/head
Of course, to hear a government minister speak on his portfolio shouldn’t cost anything – that’s why I pay taxes.
“Prime Minister John Key said there was no problem, depending on what Mr Hide would talk about.”
Well the flyer says “ACT Party Leader and Minister of Local Government; Hon Rodney Hide has a significant programme to enhance the operation of the Local Government sector.”
Sounds to me like he’s speaking as a Minister – the ’significant programme’ refers to stuff the government plans to do, not the ramblings of what ACT might do. So there is a problem.
[...] including Red Alert, where Phil Twyford published his own clearly-derivative-but-not-attributed riff on the topic earlier today, complete with Goff’s press release which forms the basis for the [...]
the term “fundraiser” has been mentioned a few times above .. if entry etc was free then it would be a weired sort of fundraising scheme!!
I hope there aren’t any records of Labour Ministers speaking at Labour Party fundraisers. That might raise accusations of hypocrisy.
From the manual – you decide!!
Fees and other payments
2.91 Ministers often appear at conferences or other gatherings to explain and discuss government policies and plans. This is an integral function of government, for which the state would expect to meet expenses and no appearance fee would be expected or accepted.
2.92 If an appearance fee or other personal payment for any non-ministerial activity is offered to a Minister, the Minister may accept it only with the agreement of the Prime Minister. Such a payment must be declared in that member’s annual disclosure of pecuniary interests. Unsolicited payments should be returned. With the agreement of the Prime Minister, fees may be accepted and donated directly to a recognised charity, but must still be declared (with an explanatory note).
2.93 Where travel and accommodation expenses are incurred by a Minister undertaking non-ministerial activities, they may be met by:
the organisers;
the Minister personally; or
the Crown, initially, in which case reimbursement must be made to a Crown bank account by the person or organisers concerned.
2.94 Ministers asked to address fundraising functions for their own electorate or that of another member of Parliament may donate any fee received to the electorate organisation involved.
Paul
Is Rodney pocketing the money? No. All those rules you have cited appear irrelevant to the case at hand. Rodney has not been given an “appearance fee” or received “personal payment”.
Late news on TV one tonite – Hide says he is there only as the leader of Act. So why the invitation to ChCh. Council members & will any of those who attend pay their own way or will rate payers pay for them to make a donation to ACT on the ratepayers behalf?
He’s appearing as the Party leader.
Look at the leaflet that the standard have linked to.
Front page. Big letters. Rodney Hide, ACT Party Leader.
The quote where it says ACT Leader and Minister for Local Government is in the middle of a block of text in on the third page.
The councilors were invited because last time Rodney spoke to an ACT event, they complained because they weren’t invited!
Again, from the flyer “ACT Party Leader and Minister of Local Government; Hon Rodney Hide has a significant programme to enhance the operation of the Local Government sector.”
This is not speaking as the leader of ACT – he is speaking about this ’signficant programme’- not ideas, not thoughts, a ‘programme’, actual stuff.
I know the truth hurts but you right-wingers need to pull your head out of the sand. It’s a fundraiser. It’s inappropriate. And Hide knows it.
The problem when you’ve lauded yourself as the ultimately in squeaky clean govenrment is that once you are not squeaky clean you will be treated far harsher than anyone else. Hide made this bed, too bad if now he doesn’t like the sheets.
Tigger is correct. It cannot be credibly argued that the fundraiser was to hear the ACT leader talk about ACT ideas for local government. Hide should simply ‘fess-up’ and can the gig and say sorry. Hide has most certainly breached the spirit of the cabinet manual, perhaps even the letter of the manual. As National pointed out numerous times when in opposition, breaching the spirit of the manual is enough because Ministers are to be held to a higher standard. What goes around, comes around.
The ‘body of text’ that Peter refers to makes it clear that the leaflet was targeted at local govt officials, (not ACTivists), and implies they were being offered the chance to hear the minister talk about govt policy re the future of local govt.
Imagine if it was Winston, last year, sending letters to embassies inviting ambassadors to a talk on the future of NZ’z foreign policy. What would Rodney call it?
So a minority party in a coalition has the power to dictate and announce Local Government policy by virtue of a breakfast speech? LMFAO.
You think there will be anything talked about at the breakfast that hasn’t already been talked to death in the media or Parliament already?
Pascal – all ACT events with few exception are open to the public and widely marketed as such. I received this invite by email in Hong Kong! The issue is you have to pay to defray the cost of the event and raise funds for the Party. I am sure Labour are familiar with the concept.
Cactus Kate defends corruption. Sad, I used to have some grudging respect for you.
Read pge two of the leaflet then Kate. It’s aimed at local body people. It’s about the minister discussing the future of NZ local govt. Apart from where to send the check and the tacky 80’s logo, ACT barely gets a mention.
Afterall, why would anyone want to go and hear what the leader of an insignificant party has to say, especially seeing everyone knows what ACT boilerplate sounds like. Instead, the text makes it sound like the Minister will be speaking, not the party leader.
He is raising funds for the party on the back of his portfolio. Admittedly not much funds, but that’s the market for you and he does what he can I suppose.
Cactus Kate, you can do much better. Hide has a series of papers through Cabinet on local government. None, of course, have been made public and no announcements made, such is his ‘ambush’ approach to reform. I’m sure many in the local government sector would be keen to learn what the Minister is up to, some even prepared to pay for the privilege. That’s what is so wrong with what he and his ACT minions are up to. In some jurisdictions, it would be called corruption and be investigated by independent authorities.
Now now, Rodney is only guilty of trying to be too helpful.
I hope Labour has someone attending the Hide fundraising rort with a voice recorder. Should Hide mention any information in his local government cabinet papers that is yet to be released to the public, not only would it be insider trading but also a breach of cabinet confidentiality. Tape recorders ready, folks?
Once again – tell us what Cabinet Rule was broken? Paul has even kindly reproduced them above? And the Stranded have picked every one related with the vain hope of something sticking. It will not.
The Labour Party invented corruption, I thought they would be a tad more careful chucking the word around given their former party member is in jail for it now.
BTW – when is the next Labour Party fundraiser?
Jennifer – Once again – there will be no state secrets discussed at a meeting like this! And once again – it follows the Cabinet manual. Rodney is not personally profiting from the event.
Pascal – why on earth would ACT be targetting Councillors who are highly unlikely to be a sympathetic audience given the changes in Auckland proposed? It is a simple Party fundraiser where they will take anyone’s money who pays to come along. They might even let you in if you paid the $45.
Rule 2.92 states that Rodney will not need permission from the PM as he is (once agin ) not receiving payment to speak at the event.
Kate – I’m sure common sense would dictate that it doesn’t matter whether the cash goes to the party or the individual that similar rules would apply. As a Minister I took a lot of care in this area – to the extent that I would not speak on an issue that Cabinet was considering at any of the hundreds of professionally organised conferences which charge exhorbitant amounts and provide terrible food.
Trevor .. you were a Minister, not the Party Leader. Labour and National are flush with funds compared to the little guys (Maori, ACT, Greens, UF and the Jim Anderton Party). Are you saying that while Peter Dunne and Jim Anderton were Ministers of the previous Labour led Govt, they never had fundraisers with themselves as the primary speaker??
I know of no examples where they did that and charged people to a hear a speech in their area of Ministerial repsonsibility and put the money in either their own pockets or party funds.
Cactus Kate, selective reading of the rules, I see. Will Rodney follow the rule that requires him or the organiser to pay back to the taxpayer the full cost of his travel and accommodation and incidentals? That’s airfares at full whack, BMW limo from VIP Transport, accommodation if he over-nights the night before, the mini-bar and smacks, must be plenty of that, any food and entertaining the night before? Sounds like the fundraiser might run at a loss. So much for ACT’s famous business acumen. Talk the talk but can’t walk the walk.
“why on earth would ACT be targetting Councillors who are highly unlikely to be a sympathetic audience given the changes in Auckland proposed? ”
Because Hide’s the Minister of local government Kate, and ACT decided to try and use that fact to score a few donations to the party. Keep up.
Think you mean snacks jennifer
maybe she didn’t Trevor .. hehe
Cactus Kate October 22 at 5:18 pm “Rodney is not personally profiting from the event.”
Kate as leader of the Act party he definitely has a pecuniary interest which will make him personally better off for it.
So presumably no minister ever spoke at a Labour Party conference or event in the last 9 years right?
Or did they just all talk about each others portfolios? Helen spoke about finance, Michael spoke about law and order, Clayton spoke about being Prime Minister, Goff spoke about education and Annette spoke about Trade?
The leaflet clearly says that Rodney is there to talk about “his” views on Local Government not the government’s.
All the selective quoting of the leaflet in the world won’t help you when people can just go and read it for themselves.
Peter if you going to claim that people are selectively quoting the leaflet, quoting a single word of it to try and prove the rest of it doesn’t say what it obviously says is a pretty stupid move.