Nats dine on Jones’ Air NZ hospitality
Shane Jones is being accused of hypocrisy for accepting a free ticket to Air New Zealand’s Barack Obama dinner while slating the company in public.
Jones was also admonished by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday after he called for Air NZ’s chairman, Tony Carter, to step down over the end of flights to the Ka¯ piti Coast.
Tickets to the huge dinner tonight with the former United States president are invite-only. Air NZ is one of three co-sponsors of the dinner.
National leader Simon Bridges is also attending the dinner.
‘‘If Shane Jones is so much the enemy, so much the foe of Air NZ, why has he accepted corporate hospitality from Air NZ to be at the Obama dinner?’’ Bridges said.
Jones said nobody should be surprised he was attending given he had gone to a US university and Obama was ‘‘one of the greatest Western leaders of my lifetime’’.
‘‘As a proxy for the 52 per cent owner of Air NZ I will go where I like,’’ Jones said.
Jones is furious about the announcement earlier this month that the airline is ending flights to the Ka¯piti Coast, which comes after flights to Kaitaia were axed in 2015.
The Government owns 52 per cent of the company, but it operates as a commercial business with no public service obligations other than returning a profit. Air NZ is run as a private company under the Companies Act.
Ardern has told Jones that calling for a chairman to resign is going too far.
‘‘I have certainly explained to him that he is absolutely entitled to an opinion that he has shared but suggesting someone should be sacked is too far,’’ Ardern said.
‘‘Even though he has no ability to follow through on this suggestion, it has gone too far.’’
Jones said his challenge to the board remained the same but he accepted he did not have any authority over it.
‘‘I accept what the prime minister said, I don’t have the authority to bring into being the disappearance of the chairman or anyone on that board, but if anyone on that board thinks they can muzzle me from speaking for the regions they are wrong.’’
The regional economic development minister challenged a regional manager on the issue last week and repeated his comments on Tuesday, drawing a strong rebuke from Carter.
That same day, Carter wrote a strongly worded letter to Finance Minister Grant Robertson making the aviation company’s independence clear.
‘‘Any appearance of a lack of commercial independence is viewed seriously by the Air New Zealand board and is ultimately potentially damaging to the interests of all shareholders, including the Crown,’’ Carter said.
These comments were echoed by chief executive Christopher Luxon yesterday.
Jones said yesterday that Luxon should decide whether he wants to be in politics or business, and should resign if his choice is politics.