Veterans minister under fire
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was forced to bring Ron Mark into line after revelations that he allegedly threatened to pull Government funding from a group for veterans unless it voted for him.
It comes as she was forced, in the House yesterday, to confirm her confidence in Mark, Shane Jones and Damien O’Connor.
The National Party accused Mark of pitching for votes at an event he attended as a minister but he said: ‘‘I absolutely refute that.’’ A 25-minute video released to Stuff shows Mark, Minister of Defence and for Veterans, addressing charitable trust No Duff, talking about support for his party and funding.
Mark said he was not canvassing for NZ First votes and he tended to speak candidly. He confirmed Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had a ‘‘chat’’ with him about it. ‘‘I told her that I would be a bit tighter.’’
The assertions lacked context and that was not his intent, he said.
During Question Time the prime minister said: ‘‘Of course I have shared with him my view that, when speaking in a ministerial capacity, references of a party political nature should be left at the door. But I reject the association the member has made between funding and votes. I do not believe that is accurate.’’
Mark also got in trouble with NZ First leader Winston Peters for talking about the party ‘‘not polling too well’’.
After Question Time, Peters said people could be slightly too enthusiastic. ‘‘What really matters is that he has done a whole lot for veteran affairs.’’
In the video, Mark tells those in attendance ‘‘all hell will break loose’’ before the next election and he had absolutely no guarantee that he’d be able to continue his work.
‘‘In fact, to be perfectly honest, when I look at the polling results of my political party New Zealand First, then the veterans, the defence base, you guys haven’t supported us . . . the fact we only get 7 per cent of the vote tells me that.’’
Mark says if the Defence Force family supported the party, New Zealand First could double its vote. ‘‘If all the Defence Force family threw us their party vote we’d probably be at 15 or 17 per cent . . . it is important to me that I get as much done as I possibly can in the short space of time that’s available.’’
Later in his speech, he talks about $25,000 No Duff received each year and how the new organisation had the ‘‘rather interesting distinction’’ of getting funding out of him, which the prime minister had backed.
He contrasted it with the RSA, which took 90 years to get funding for members.
No Duff got its money within two months ‘‘courtesy of me’’, he said. ‘‘So I’d like to think you recognise that, and I’d like to think you recognise the responsibility that comes with it.’’
National’s Defence spokesman Mark Mitchell said it was ‘‘extraordinary’’ that a Cabinet minister would use his position to stand in front of a group of volunteers, telling them how he had given them funding and accused them of not supporting his party.
‘‘It’s extraordinary a Cabinet minister would send veiled threats and try to spruik party votes,’’ he said.
Mitchell believed it was a serious breach of ethical standards and raised it in the House yesterday.
‘‘Is it a sacking offence? I’m not sure,’’ National Leader Simon Bridges said. ‘‘But it certainly requires a serious dressing down, it requires contrition, we haven’t seen either of those things.’’