Collins must be seen to be above board

CABINET ministers must avoid conflicts of interest or any appearance of them. The Cabinet Manual is explicit about this. But there seems to be great confusion about how the rules apply in practice. As a result, serious questions remain about Justice Minister Judith Collins’ visit to a dairy company in China of which her husband is a director.

If there was not an actual conflict of interest, there was certainly the appearance of one.

The Cabinet Manual forbids ministers from endorsing products ‘‘in any media’’. Ms Collins last year visited Oravida, which reportedly gave $55,000 to the National Party in 2011. She says she tried the company’s milk and ‘‘probably said it was nice milk’’. English translations of a statement on the company website are said to include either that she ‘‘praised’’ or ‘‘endorsed’’ the company’s product.

If these were really the words that appeared in Chinese on the website, they certainly look like a breach of the rules. Ms Collins has rejected the charge that she broke the rules but says she has also told the company to remove anything from the website that breaches the manual. There is a certain tension between these two statements. What is needed is a careful inquiry to see what statements appeared and what changes were made, and when.

Yesterday the website still contained photos of Ms Collins visiting the company and included an English text in which she praised its achievements and encouraged it to continue building New Zealand’s ‘‘premium food reputation in China’’. Ms Collins says she was just boosting the country’s dairy products in general terms and was not endorsing the company’s products.

The Cabinet Manual says the minister should tell the organisation that it may not use any photos taken of the minister ‘‘in a way that is perceived as an endorsement . . . of the organisation, or its product or services.’’ Ms Collins says she told the company this in advance. But clearly it has done it anyway. The photo and text still on the website certainly look like a ministerial endorsement of the firm.

This is all very untidy and Prime Minister John Key’s intervention has not helped much. He says the Cabinet Office has told him ‘‘unequivocally’’ that Ms Collins’ actions did not breach the rules. However, he has so far refused to issue a copy of that ruling. It would be much better if he did. It would then be quite clear what the official version is and the reasons for it.

Mr Key says the issue arises all the time and ‘‘I go to a lot of things where I say I use your toilet paper, or whatever it might be, that’s not deemed to be an endorsement’’. If such a statement was included on the company website, however, it’s hard to see what else it could be.

It seems that the rules are being very loosely interpreted in practice. But the manual also says that perception matters as well as reality: ‘‘appearances and propriety can be as important as an actual conflict of interest.’’ This is crucial in every area of politics, and politicians in general understand this. Caesar’s wife must not only be above sin, she must be seen to be so. Ms Collins has pooh-poohed the idea that there could be an appearance of conflict of interest in this case. We beg to differ.