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Collins said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Finance Minister Grant Robertson should not have allowed the funds to be allocated so close to the election.
“Jacinda Ardern knows it and Grant Robertson signed him to Shane Jones, so he’s extraordinarily arrogant, but worse than that, he’s absolutely on the brink of system corruption,” he said.
“It shouldn’t be happening … I think people have seen enough of Shane Jones to know that he’s not the right person to be the MP in Northland.”
Jones is campaigning to win Northland from Matt King, the national MP who currently has it. A Colmar-Brunton poll in August showed King at 46 percent, Willow-Jean Prime of Labor at 31 percent and Jones at 15 percent.
“What it shows is the utter desperation to do that at a time when people are already voting. It’s extraordinary,” Collins said. “I imagine the absolute hysteria that would be received if a National Government tried to do that.”
NZ First leader Winston Peters said Collins needs to “catch up” on the fact that the $ 100 million was part of the $ 600 million announced as part of a PGF package in June to support the recovery of economies. Regional COVID-19
“This was announced in May … and she never said anything. How convenient is this?” Peters said on Friday, when asked to respond to Collins’ criticism. “We are not going to bow to that.”
Ardern also said that available money was reallocated “some time ago” as part of the COVID-19 recovery.
“With the PGF, there was a view that there were some funds that should be reallocated to those projects that would create jobs quickly, get jobs, and do that across the country.”
Ardern said “absolutely not” is on the verge of corruption.
ACT leader David Seymour came to light earlier this week when he learned that the funds were being announced so close to the election.
“With less than two weeks to go before the elections, NZ First and Labor are using a fund of taxpayer money to try to buy votes,” he said Wednesday.
“Shane Jones is announcing a $ 100 million spend, which will include funding for the constituency in which he is present. While Mr. Jones might think he will buy votes from him, New Zealanders can see it.”
Jones told Newshub Seymour that the “headline approach” was “not worthy of a response that was not tacky and negative.”
He said the funding “signals the final grand event of the Provincial Growth Fund’s development strategy, and the fact that it’s in the north I don’t think should give rise to these tacky accusations that it is being pursued for local political purposes. “.
Peters had a message for Seymour: “Have you been to your marae? Did you pay a fee when you were there? Well, what happens here? That kind of behavior is just unacceptable.”
National’s finance spokesman suggested earlier this week that funding being announced so close to an election could violate cabinet convention, as Jones is a cabinet minister.
Jones disagreed and insisted that cabinet rules were followed.
“Obviously, all applicants have gone through a process sanctioned by the cabinet and all approvals have been issued within the mandate of the cabinet.”
University of Otago law professor Andrew Geddis said it is a “little bit complicated” because in the pre-election period, there is no blanket requirement that the government park its businesses while the campaign unfolds.
“There is a weak expectation expressed in the Cabinet Manual that some types of decisions are frozen before the elections, but it is about things like appointments, etc., where a new government might have wanted to take a different path,” he said. .
“I think spending like Jones is proposing falls outside even that weak expectation … If National is elected, he’s free to reverse the promises!”
He said the real problem is that the ad “feels a bit like a bribe with our own money” or “nonsense.”
“We don’t really have constitutional rules against this … Instead, political shit is left to the detector … People can see what’s going on and decide if it’s a good investment or if it smells of desperation and one last throw. dice “.
In other words, it is more a question of political ethics than of constitutional rules.
Napier Labor MP Stuart Nash defended the funding when pressured during an interview with Mike Hosking of Newstalk ZB.
“Why shouldn’t the Maori and Marae receive it?” Nash asked.
Hosking replied, “Because we have better things to do with our money and don’t believe the jobs you said you would do or turn out to be the promised job machine.”
Nash said he understands it will create about 3,000 jobs.
