Peters is still a Minister
August 30th, 2008 at 5:56 pm by David FarrarI’ve had formal confirmation that Winston Peters is still a Minister of the Crown. He has been stood down from his portfolios, but not as a Minister.
What does this mean?
He has no ministerial work to do, but still has all the baubles of office!
This “standing down” is in fact brilliant for him. He can campaign full-time, using all his Ministerial resources, without having to actually do any Ministerial work. No wonder he agreed.
The NZ Herald front page incorrectly said:
As a minister, Winston Peters enjoys some of what he has previously described as “baubles of office”. His standing down will see him stripped of at least some of these.
- Salary drops from $195,700 as Minister outside Cabinet to $145,900
- Free ministerial house.
- Shiny, new chauffeur-driven BMW ministerial car.
- VIP diplomatic passport.
- All expenses paid international travel.
They got it wrong (to be fair to them they probably assumed a stand down involved some sort of well loss of benefit, and they were up against a deadline). He keeps all of these, but that is not the main thing he keeps.
He keeps his staff. Currently his staff are funded by both Ministerial Services and The Parliamentary Service. But the leader’s office budget from The Parliamentary Service is only $485,920, or including the research funding $639,920. That isn’t a lot. But the Ministerial Office budget tends to be close to or over a million a year. That means Winston will keep all his staff (except those that are portfolio specific), which is very useful in a campaign.
How long will Winston be kept on as a Minister without portfolio?
Winston gives the impression the SFO investigation will be over by Monday.
However the 2002 investigation into a donation to National took two months, or eight weeks, to conclude. Will Helen keep Winston on as Minister without portfolio for eight weeks? That’s a lot of baubles in return for no work.
UPDATE: TVNZ have just made the same mistake and said that “he has been relieved of a large chunk of his pay packet and other Ministerial perks”.
TV3 got it right though. Thank goodness someone did.
Related posts:
- Who will be the next Justice Minister
- Clark confirms Peters stays regardless of Privileges
- The growth in Ministerial staff numbers
- Editorials on Peters
August 30th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
The coalition agreement between Labour and NZ First demands that the leader of NZ First have a cabinet post. With no ministerial rank, there is no agreement, hence no government.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Interesting point slightly but we had the same situation with Dynhoven which was when Helen got a taste for retrospective legislation if you recall. Being an illegal government has no meaning for Clark.
I for one am happy Peters still has some of these things.
Use the car and drive to get the airport and get some use out of that passport and free international travel will you.
cubye
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Who is paying Peter Williams?
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
You are.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Well that will be a relief for that hard working official employee with whom Peters boards in Tauranga.(The one with the sign on the roof)
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Rodney Hide needs to enunciate better – on the news it sounded like he was saying Helen Clark ‘needs to cut off his balls’…was actually ‘baubles’. Ha!
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Why should we be surprised? Misuse of public money is stock-in-trade for both Clark and Peters.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
I’m puzzled (not), as to why Henry (aka blood bro), is not acting for Peter’s in this matter, as he (allegedly) has intimate knowledge of Peter’s affairs. What is Henry hiding from, I wonder??
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
The whole fucking thing just pisses me off.
Vote:They are supposed to be working for us, yet they all (especially Winston) do it all their way.
What say do we have in anything that happens? Nothing except to vote once every 3 years on who’s going to rip us off.
I suggest the country joins together, 4 million on the steps and kick the bastards out.
Okay, like that’s going to happen, but here’s another stupid answer to the problems….
Prime Minister get paid $150,000…. a few baubles.
Ministers $100,000…. a few less baubles
everyone else $80,000….. no baubles, join Norman on the bus.
Still okay pay isn’t it? If they want to be there, they will.
August 30th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Join the revolution Michaels.
Its all they’ve left us.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I thought everyone wanted to improve the calibre of MP’s Michaels, not end up with 120 Sue Bradfords
Vote:You’ll only attract fucken more academics for that deal
August 30th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
They work a bit more than your 40 hours a week though. I think.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
If you pay them half a mil each you watch the standard start to improve
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Patrick NO. (see the sign)
Vote:No more Bradfords, but paying 500k won’t improve the calibre of people.
Ask John Key if he’d be prime minister for 150k then go about finding more like him.
When Winston had his pokie little office above a bakery in Howick, he would have been lucky to earn squat!!
I want people that want to do the right thing for ALL of us, not just the workers nor just business. now I believe someone like JK has these thoughts which I can’t say about all past National leaders.
I am sick to the back teeth of professional politicians that do nothing but bludge off the public tit from day one!!
August 30th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Williams and Peters go way back.
In 1996, Williams kick started NZ1sts election campaign in Auckland (he launched the campaign) and his partner Janie Phillips was a candidate for NZ1 in Northcote and was placed reasonably high on the list.
Williams is a fine lawyer and a good man in my view. But everyone is allowed to exercise poor judgment once or twice.
I suspect Williams is working for free. He is virtually retired now anyway.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Sorry, dont agree. Like JK there’s probably only 10 -15% of the entire house who have taken a pay cut to be an MP, and that’s probably the most who would work and not consider the pay. The problem with it not making it $$ attractive is those who have the right smarts, and want the bucks wouldn’t bother.
My point is the most of the dregs there now wouldn’t get near a position if it was well paid
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I think Paul Marsden hit the nail on the head. Brian Henry can’t front the SFO because they might ask him questions he does not want to answer.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
“In all well-tempered governments there is nothing which should be more jealously maintained than the spirit of obedience to law, more especially in small matters for transgression creeps in unperceived and at last ruins the state, just as the constant recurrence of small expenses in time eat up a fortune.”
-Aristotle in Politics, Book 5, Chapter 8 [Benjamin Jowett's translation]
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Patrick EXCELLENT, what an opportunity to get rid of the bludges.
Vote:Could Bradford get a job in the real world that paid anything more than the minimum wage? NO (look at the sign) So why should we pay her shit loads while she does dumb arse things that most of the country disagree with?
So lets join together all 4 million of us, or 3,999,881 (JK missed) and throw the bastards out!!
August 30th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Some quotes for the occasion:
Behavior which appears superficially correct but is intrinsically corrupt always irritates those who see below the surface.
James Bryant Conant
Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts… perhaps the fear of a loss of power.
John Steinbeck
The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.
Georges Bernanos
Wherever you see a man who gives someone else’s corruption, someone else’s prejudice as a reason for not taking action himself, you see a cog in The Machine that governs us.
John Jay Chapman
They call me corrupt, frivolous. I am not at all privileged. Maybe the only privileged thing is my face. And corrupt? God! I would not look like this if I am corrupt. Some ugliness would settle down on my system.
Vote:Imelda Marcos
August 30th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
TVNZ aka State TV got it wrong… what a surprise… NOT.
How utterly convenient
Jesus H I know they take Ninth floor spin like Winston takes Glenfiddich but are they moronic or complicit???
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
What to pay MPs is a hard question.
John Stuart Mill thought that they should be paid the income they earned before entering Parliament. Gets around the problem of high-income people not wanting to be MPs, but offends against the principle of equal pay for equal work.
The biggest problem is that for most of our MPs, their current job is the best gig they have ever have in their lives: the power to influence laws, the respect they get from parliamentary staff and the proximity to power, and for some the prospect of exercising power.
It is this, rather than the money, that makes them fight so hard to retain office.
This is why post-service perks of office are so important: it makes it more likely, rather than less, that the duds will leave when their party wants to ease them out. In the UK they have the House of Lords as the ultimate in golden handshakes.
So while it would be a good idea to pay serving MPs much more, to entice good people to serve, we should also considerably increase what we pay the retired ones.
Oh, and have a decent set of anti-corruption laws to make sure that fuckers like WP will never want to go anywhere near Parliament, because the prospect of an extended term in jail is an even better incentive to honesty.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
DPF said: He has been stood down from his portfolios, but not as a Minister. What does this mean?
It means he has a lot more time to blog.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
I’m still waiting to be stood down from the cowshed but sadly I do not have polititcians blood. I told the the boss ( the wife ) that we should all rejoice in the freedom and furture prospects Liarbore has pormised us but sadly this had no effect on her goodself. It seems my good wife believes in hard work and honesty, I wish I had the same belief.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I’m even more outraged now. Winston is the Clint Rickards of Parliament, stood down on full perks, all the while he rapes the public purse.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Just keeping asking yourself boys and girls….Why does Peter’s have such a hold over Clark??
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Oddly both both Psycho Milt at No Minister & Chris Trotter are musing on the same thought. They speculate that Winston Peters might have been playing out an elaborate plan to trick his enemies into attacking so they could be proven wrong. Leaving Winston to claim the moral high ground so that he and Labour can sail to victory.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Well Mr. Peter Williams QC, here it is almost 12 hours after your meeting with the SFO, and despite your statement that the ‘documentation’ will clear your client (Winston Peters), within a few minutes of the meeting, we still await word of the outcome.
My advice to you Mr. Williams, is to stop making a fool of yourself with your contemptible drivel and attribute the people of NZ with a little more intelligence. Stick to something you know something about (like your bleeding heart for criminal rights), and leave accounting practices to people more adept to adding 2+2, than you are.
Vote:,
August 30th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Problem is, if you pay them less, they find other ways to get money. It increases corruption – and there are lots of opportunity for corruption. The old saw – pay peanuts, get monkeys, is as true in politics as anywhere.
The problem isn’t the pay, and the people who want to be in politics. The problem is the voters who are prepared to elect idiots. I guess the intent of MMP was to more accurately reflect the population – and a goodly proportion of NZers are idiots. Makes sense the people they elect would be idiots too.
That is part of the value of a larger parliament (120 MPs). Even when half your party are idiots, you can still find enough with half a brain to form a cabinet. Say what you will about Labour, you can’t deny that those at the very top are quite politically astute, and haven’t wrecked the country quite as badly as if you took the bottom 10 MPs from Labour and put them in cabinet.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I agree Paul Marsden and Michaels. I wouldn’t be surprised if Helen Clark’s finger prints are all over those Spencer Trust accounts – the donations freely flowing between the two parties or some similar type of arrangement.
They forget we are humans: social animals that have an incredibly good eye for detecting liars and when someone has something to hide. Clark looked like a possum in the headlights last night on TV3, and Winston Peters sounded sick with fear on RNZ. We all know they are precariously standing on a house of cards and I suspect something else will come up from a new direction that will bring it all tumbling down.
The moral compass was thrown out long ago so these people will do anything to clutch onto their power. They are completely oblivious to what the public want from them/or don’t care. We just want plain honest answers to some very simple questions – and we’ve been waiting for months and are still no better off. Instead the PM has just lied and given us all the run-around. We pay her wages. Is asking for plain honesty just too much to ask?
The PM is corrupt. The Speaker of the House is the worst I’ve see in my entire life and makes no attempt to hide her strong favourability towards National and NZ First. The Chief Ombudsman’s Office are delaying reports which will negatvely impact the current Government, the Attorney General is sitting on his hands, the State Services Commission are just an extension of Clark’s office. Is there nowhere we can go anymore that isn’t corrupt?
I’m with Michaels – something has to be done. I’m sick of it.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
“Oddly both both Psycho Milt at”
Link whoring for your commie mates? No pride at all have you?
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Slightlyrighty,
another quote for your list
“Our government… teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”
Louis Brandeis
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
I am starting to get the horrible feeling that Peters may wriggle through the SFO and other public investigations and live to festoon himself again with baubles and twinkle. Ah shit.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Mara, I am almost certain he will wriggle through.
Vote:Clark has set up these investigations to fail. Thats why she hasn’t turned on him.
But I still have enough faith in the public, to punish them come election day
August 30th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Go Alice !!!!!!
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Ahhhhhh Alice….. I’m in lust with Alice… But who the fuck is Alice.
ALICE??
ALICE???
DAVID, Alice can stay.
[DPF: My lips are sealed!]
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Have a good weekend and warm regards to the happy campers on the footpath. Enjoy the warmth of the coming Spring!
The mind boggles
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Our political ‘elite’ are still in the learning-stages of nepotism and corruption. The so-called leading democracy in the world has ‘elected’ a father and then son as its president. You tell me that’s democracy. C’mon.
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Still boggling
Vote:August 30th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Winnie hasn’t put one of my posts up, so thought I might just put it here….
In some crap about spring he added….
“Today we have been doing some jobs at home, pausing occaisionally (yes his spelling not mine) to look out the window at the teams of journalists, camera people and photographers camping on the footpath. At the same time, it occurred to me that the money spent on these people could be used on a force for real good within the community.
Imagine if all the money being spent by the media peering through our fence today was used to help retrieve the billions of dollars of old peoples’ money lost or frozen in finance companies.” (of his 5% what number would use the net? 2%?)
So any my response was…..
And Winston, imagine the money we could put into our schools etc if we didn’t have so many pricks ripping us general public off all the time, and no I don’t mean your wrong doings, I mean the damn lot of you professional pricks in the Hive!!
Vote:August 31st, 2008 at 2:39 am
Winston is an A grade fuckwit but let me just add a little bit of sanity to this thread…if any of us were suspended from our jobs while our conduct was investigated we would most likely also be suspended on full pay….the only difference is that Winston gets paid a bit more than we do. We would also not be thrown out of our house or have all our staff sent down the road.
DPF, I realise staff often lose their job when a minister loses his or her job but do you actually think its fair to sack all of his staff (who presumably have families, mortgages and bills to pay just like everyone else) simply because Winston is under suspicion? Cause that is what you seem to be advocating.
Vote:August 31st, 2008 at 6:50 am
I think what concerns me the most is that so many in the MSM got this fundamental point wrong – given that to the vast majority of the public it’s the only place they get their political news.
Vote:August 31st, 2008 at 8:29 am
I wonder how many people in NZ, realise this mad-hatter’s tea party is making headlines news around the world? I was just reading a Chinese (the race he loves to hate) newspaper, and there’s a photograph of Peter’s playing his favourite card game.
Vote:August 31st, 2008 at 8:45 am
We all seemed to have missed the very real and dreadful ramifications of the almost Full collapse of the Finance Company Sector.
Not many of them left now, and that business model has got zero credibility. The Owners seem OK though!
So What? Old News!
Er, as WRP, self appointed champion of the Retired Community. What has he done to help all those in the Community who have lost
virtually everything. He really has been mute on the subject. Why?
The same collapse has happened before in the 90′s with the same old suspects. Rod ‘keeping me Porsche’ Pietrovich and his like, whilst under pressure, are now best friends with their Wives.
So why was there no proper protection, regulation, reserve fund, insurance backing, proper auditing etc.
A True Labour Inspired Scandal of Epic Proportions. Ably assisted by NZF and the Greens.
And the Government of the last 9 years. Are they actually culpable?
Cullen, spending huge money on an ancient, almost defunct trainset. That money could have been used as a temporary buffer against hardship cases.
All Government fault, Hmmm No. The investors thought getting 1-2% more than the Clearing Banks Instant access or Term Funds was a great deal. Not so clever when your Capital vanishes. So there was an element of Greed on their Part?
My Concern is this. Why has the Government done nothing from the start of their administration?
Guilty:
Winston Peters, Champion of the Grey, and actually not interested at all.
Professor Cullen, buyer of non-strategic trinkets. No clue about Finance and Banking. Not Bothered
Helen Clark, too interested in promoting UN sponsored ECO taxes to worry about people having lost their savings.
The Cabinet, for not doing anything when the Financial Credit Crunch Tsunami kicked off in the States. (This was a predictable event)
The SFO for not having the bandits controlling these companies locked up by now
ETC. ETC.
Rant Over
Vote:August 31st, 2008 at 8:55 am
Like a lot of New Zealanders Paul Marsden thinks the world is enraptured by this scandal.
Vote:I have just been in Australia and there continues to be a dearth of information about New Zealand let alone the Winston saga. We might as well not be here ! Forget about this as a world shattering event.(Incidentally, The Australian newspaper never once mentioned the fact that NZ won Olympic medals as did Channel 7 .Olympic coverage.Bloody disgrace)
That leads me to say that the Nuclear Free thing is exactly the same. Many New Zealanders haven’t been more than a hundred miles from home and see New Zealand as the leader in the world. Reminds me of the movie”The Mouse that Roared”
Humbug.Rot. Delusional are my reactions.
Let us sort this out the best way through the election which should see a rout of the incumbents. However with so many ignorant flat earthers around, somehow in my darkest moments I see Winston Last scrambling to 5%.
Ah well, one could always seek asylum in Mongolia !!!!!!!
August 31st, 2008 at 9:29 am
I don’t think for one moment that the world is enraptured by these shannigans, but I’m only commenting on my surprise (too), at what I see.
Vote:August 31st, 2008 at 9:55 am
Whoops – correction to my previous blog on this thread.
I meant to say that the Speaker of the House makes no attempt to hide her strong favourability towards Labour – and her absolute contempt for National and NZ First. She, very noticeably, winces when National and NZ First ask something Labour want to avoid answering and hide, and openly smiles when Labour are attacking National or NZ First. Not only do her reactions tell all – but they are highly unproffesional. She may as well just voice her views openly and loudly whilst running the House – as her body language is saying everything she could possibly want to say verbally. She makes absolutely no attempt at hiding her obvious prejudice. It’s absolutely shocking.
And while I am in the mood for a rant, why the hell would anyone look to the Labour Party to get this country out of the financial crisis we are in? The Labour Party are all a bunch of ex-academics, not workers, and National Party members have all been real workers in both the private and public sector and have been very successful in business. Why would anyone want to listen to the PM on matters of business and finance over listening to what John Key has to say? Clark has never had a proper job in her life and John Key is a millionaire. Simple. If I needed some financial advice on how to increase this country’s wealth – I know which one I would go see.
On another note, my belated nana used to say, if you want to know the integrity and honesty of a person, just look at their teeth. If they’re crooked – then be very wary of them. She was a funny old lady but perhaps she was right on this one. Whose got the most crooked, rotting teeth I have ever seen? Hmm – let me think……
…..yuck!
Vote: