Simon Ewing-Jarvie
August 22nd, 2010 at 6:19 am by David FarrarThe Herald on Sunday has an interesting piece on Simon Ewing-Jarvie.
I haven’t talked to Simon for a few years, but have chatted to him a few times in the past – like myself he is very much into technology. On a personal level, always found him very relaxed and interesting. But around six months ago I started to hear stories that were less than flattering. I don’t have enough first hand knowledge to say who may be at fault, but the HoS story raises some interesting issues:
The Security Intelligence Service withheld security clearance for Simon Ewing-Jarvie, a former New Zealand Army lieutenant colonel, shortly before he took part in an Act Party insurrection. …
Early this month, SIS officers working on a standard investigation into the adviser’s background decided he should not be allowed to see or access classified material.
In the first week of August, Prime Minister John Key’s chief of staff Wayne Eagleson was sent a document stating that Ewing-Jarvie’s status had shifted to “non-access to any classified material”.
Security checks are usually straightforward, with SIS officers checking disclosures by staff against paper records, tracking an individual’s life to the present. Any variation results in closer scrutiny.
SIS officers had been attempting to carry out the clearance work on Ewing-Jarvie for most of the year but had difficulty pinning him down to discuss details.
It is rare indeed to not get an SIS clearance. Even I managed it! 
It is almost incomprehensible that one could work for a Defence Minister and not have security clearance. One can only wonder why clearance was not given.
Political confidantes of Roy have expressed concern over the advice she has been receiving from Ewing-Jarvie and the depth of their relationship.
The Herald on Sunday observed Roy leaving Ewing-Jarvie’s home yesterday morning.
Her car, which was parked outside his house at 10.30pm on Friday, was in the same place at 7am.
Well that’s subtle.
The SST also has a story, where Ewing-Jarvie admits to leaking the Roy dossier. This is no surprise, as Whale Oil has already outed him for it.
Tags: ACT, Heather Roy, Simon Ewing-Jarvie, SIS
August 22nd, 2010 at 6:48 am
There goes my breakfast.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 7:10 am
Roarprawn had already been there a couple of days ago, looking at the elephant in the room.
And from that flattering pic this morning in the SST, SEJ really needs some sun.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 7:12 am
Was it a Toyota? Had it broken down? Those brake recalls were never fully comprehensive and fully completed.
Or was it a FORD? Coz they is just crap, innit. Might have been an Italian Car, as they are very tempremental.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 7:20 am
It’s always edifying seeing how the Right smear those they deem to be traitors.
Rats have more scruples than Tories in that regard.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 7:20 am
“Her car, which was parked outside his house at 10.30pm on Friday, was in the same place at 7am.”
Vote:Are we getting into French politics territory? May she took a cab?
August 22nd, 2010 at 7:38 am
I thought that too Manolo, it’s dangerous to jump to conclusions. Maybe she had a few drinks and took a cab. On the other hand maybe the HoS are writing in code, for them to insinuate so pointedly they may know more detail, maybe they don’t want to admit the extent of their surveillance.
But that part of the story should be irrelevant, personal life stuff shouldn’t matter. The key quote is:
“It is almost incomprehensible that one could work for a Defence Minister and not have security clearance. ”
That deserves much greater scrutiny, Act surely bear some responsibility for that. Its seems incomprehensible that they would have let it go this long.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 7:40 am
Did SE-J think that he was Michael Laws?
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 7:50 am
The word groyn should be avoided at all costs. Pun intended.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 8:05 am
Curiouser and curiouser – we live in interesting times.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 8:05 am
So Brunette over at roarprawn seems to have been right.
Why is it that right wingers always do sex and leftists always do graft? Seems an almost immutable law of politics.
So Roy’s *ahem* advisor has a history of doing party pills, is unable to get a security clearance, has a sense of entitlement beyond his sad little role as a secretary, and is shagging the boss.
Great stuff. All credit to them both, no wonder Rodney seems to have torn his hair out.
As someone mentions above, Rodney’s silence despite the damage it was going to cause him, and Act’s brand now makes a bit more sense – how many kids does Roy have again? did she really want her dirty laundry aired so publicly?
but this toad simon thingy seems to have no compunction about his cast iron sense of entitlement does he? and it seems as though Roy has a similar unswerving sense of her personal destiny too – well I guess there’s always mayor of carterton and dancing with the stars in her future?
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 8:36 am
Why is it that right wingers always do sex and leftists always do graft?
Excuse me!
So leftists don’t do sex, well fucking hell where do they all come from?
They maybe get their rocks off just screwing others?urrr
And when did any lefty do graft?
Foreign concept.
Back to your pulpit for your jaundiced view of the world.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 8:48 am
Oh FFS who cares who is fucking what. DPF you’ve always been one for trying to keep personal stuff out of politics, and now is a perfectly good time to remember that. I know you didn’t publish the story, but you didn’t have to highlight it.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 8:54 am
d’uh viking, i know its a bit early in the morning for you, the comment was about the trends in the scandals that bring pollys down.
and leftys not doing graft! don’t make me laugh. Has Labour paid back the $850k it stole to help win the 2005 election yet?
In the States look at how many democrats get caught paying off their mates, or simply discover cash in the Freezer (perhaps it goes off, who knew?)
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 9:18 am
“It is almost incomprehensible that one could work for a Defence Minister and not have security clearance. One can only wonder why clearance was not given”.
Indeed … or then again is this the reason why (and could he have been at the lower end of the SIS pending risk assessment hence why he still continued to work for the Assoc DefMin?):
“SIS officers had been attempting to carry out the clearance work on Ewing-Jarvie for most of the year but had difficulty pinning him down to discuss details”.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 9:28 am
As a long time Act member I was at an Act conference some years ago where Ewing-Jarvie spoke.
Vote:I recall thinking at the time that he would be a huge dead weight for our party to carry. His fixation upon the armed forces was pathetic.
My thoughts on the armed forces go back to 1983 when a political party proposed that New Zealand no longer have any armed forces. Just think of the dough that has been consumed in the past 27 years by that lot. That radical political party I am referring to also recommended a flat tax rate and a consumption tax.
Nostalgia; it is not what it used to be.
August 22nd, 2010 at 10:09 am
The SST report was interesting.
The false doing drugs report was because SEJ was passing out BZP at a party when it was legal.
So the rumour about drug use (amidst other defamatory statements) was in fact true?
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 10:24 am
the deity formerly known as nigel6888
Sorry, misinterpreted your words. Graft I assumed was work. but I agree that they are more than capable of sloshing cash around for favours.
Tauhei Notts
Vote:That same party promoted a written Constitution. A need for which is greater than ever with the Nats. about to give the Maoris NZ, ignoring as usual the rest of us and our opinions.
Key still thinks he is running a private company where he makes the decisions and we reap the consequences.
He needs to look across the Tasman and see how quick popularity sinks when you piss enough people off. Two months from high to out.
August 22nd, 2010 at 1:28 pm
The security issue is very very interesting. For my part I did not think Mrs Roy was innocent old Heather. She should have dismissed Ewen-Jarvie if he did not pass a security clearance (why not??). She has a higher duty but she seemed to become very very dependent on him even to the extent to causing friction within the Government. Now that is just bad. She seemed to have lost all sense of judgement. But I am very surprised the security issue has come out into the open. That issue is usually kept ultra ultra confidential.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Anyone who has ever had a security clearance will know this Herald story is seriously wrong. The SIS do not have the authority to grant or withhold security clearances – they only make recommendations to the department that submitted the request to them in the first place.
In this case it will have been Ministerial Services, and it will be Ministerial Services sole decision on whether to grant a clearance – it has nothing to do with Key’s Chief of Staff. In fact Key’s Chief of Staff own security clearance is granted by Ministerial Services too.
Clearances take up to six months anyway so the claim in the story that the SIS have supposedly being working on the case all this year is hardly remarkable. Remember that Courier in Helen Clarke’s office who leaked information to a pal in Telecom a few years back? He had been working in her office for over six months (and not some minor lowly-ranked Cabinet Minister’s office) and his security clearance had still not been completed by the SIS when his leaking of information was uncovered.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 1:35 pm
I disagree on what Chris2 says about security clearances. Of course the SIS makes the assessment from information they collect. But it is pretty slack to have someone in Heather Roy’s office with access to highly classified material, who has not had this clearance. I simply do not believe that. But if Heather Roy was granting him access when he did not have this clearance then I would have fired her on the spot.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 1:45 pm
I think a better argument to make is that it’s rather rich for Heather Roy to refuse the document to Rodney and then make a complaint about it on the grounds that it was classified when she had a person working on the report who was refused a security clearance.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 2:00 pm
tvb – you have erroneously jumped to the conclusion that Ewing-Jarvie does not already possess a security clearance. He is (or was) a Lieutenant-Colonel (I think in the Territorials) and he would have already had a security clearance for that role.
Indeed the Army would never have allowed him in the Defence Forces without a security clearance. Clearances last five years and unless he got to the rank of Lt.Colonel in that time then he has probably had more than one security clearance, probably at least two.
It seems more likely his clearance was up for renewal and in such circumstances, even if his current clearance had expired he would still have been allowed security access while it was being renewed.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 3:03 pm
I do not tink a Lt Colonel necessarily has a security clearance. If his clearance had expired then that does not provide an excuse. There is more to come on this. I note the Act Party has given up the Defence portfolio. I think that is very significant, I do not think for a moment the reasons given hold water with me. I am very concerned that the coverage so far suggests Roy had a very casual approach to security issues and allowed an unauthorised person access to material he was not entitled to have. That is very serious indeed and justifies all the actions of Rodney Hide.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 3:19 pm
So it is now a “whose integrity do you trust more” kind of contest between a retired army lt. Colonel, and a right-wing idealogue politician who made a name for himself as “perkbuster” before he got snapped enjoying the perks.
Bye bye Act, it’s been a displeasure knowing you.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 3:39 pm
I am not sure about this retired Lt Colonel at all. If he was that hot he would have retained his position. He was bundled out of Parliament quick smart and Act surrendered the portfolio. I am backing Rodney coming out of this just fine in doing the right thing. My only criticism is maybe he should have acted sooner over this individual.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 4:35 pm
tvb – it is apparent you know nothing about how security clearances are undertaken, it is obvious you are unaware that almost every Defence employee (civillian or military) requires a security clearance – even guards and cleaners need them but you presume to think a Lt.Colonel wouldn’t.
You seem not to know about retirement from the military been based on rank for age, or that a Lt. Col. may just choose to resign and pursue a civilian career.
You also appear to be unaware that persons not Public Servants appointed to work in a Ministers Office only enjoy their position so long as their Minister remains a Minister and that as soon as the Minister goes, they go too. So to say Ewing-Jarvie was “bundled” out of Parliament “quick smart” is just ignorant nonsense – his job ended when Roy’s did, and I imagined he left the Parliamentary precinct voluntarily on his own two legs without being “bundled” out.
Unlike you, I don’t have a strong view on Roy or Hide, but since you do, the least you could do is develop your argument using some facts.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Don’t do yourself a disservice by implicating anything inappropriate in the Roy-Ewing-Jarvie relationship.
The two families have been friends for years – spouses and children included. In fact, you’ll struggle to find two more ‘functional’ family units in the country.
Heather Roy did stay at the Ewing-Jarvie home on Friday night – along with Simon’s wife and daughter! In fact, it occurred because Heather’s husband had called her to tell her not to return home, because its was surrounded by media.
As for the Defence clearance issue – expect the fullness of time to show that there might well have been a stuff up at the SIS end.
Focus on the real issue. What future does ACT have if it can’t move beyond the idiosyncrasies of egotistical personalities and get back to focusing on the ideals of the Party.
At least Heather Roy has brought that to a head.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Security clearances have differing levels. A clearance enabling access to certain information at one level may not allow access to other, more sensitive, information.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Chris2 is quite right. The clearance is at the discretion of the chief executive of the relevant department – the SIS is an advisor to him/her.
Clearances last for 5 years, and they are for the agency you work for at the time – but obviously having held a clearance is a fairly good sign that a future clearance should be readily attainable.
so what WAS going on here?
I have to say that handing out party pills at a conferences shows amazingly bad judgement even if they were strictly legal – and I am sure would be taken into account during a vetting process. Shagging your Minister without recognising a conflict of interest is probably another error of judgement.
Behaving like an arrogant cut-rate svengali probably is up there too.
Oh and Viking – sorry mate, it was early in the am for me too, i forget that graft has the meaning of hard work in Aussie and NZ, and theft of money in the US and UK my bad.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 9:09 pm
As I said if the Lt Colonel was that good at what he did he would have retained a position in Parliament. He didn’t and was bundled out quick smart medals and all. I have no idea whether the good Lt Colonel had the appropriate security clearance. The newspaper articles said he did not. If he was getting access to documents without the required security clearance then Heather Roy has much to answer for.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 10:03 pm
tvb – Repeating what you have already written here earlier in the day, will not make it more believable.
Presumably if you believe what the newspapers write (regarding the status of Ewen-Jarvie’s security clearance status), then you are equally obliged to believe the media’s assertion that ACT will be wiped out at the next election.
You can’t have it both ways.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 10:19 pm
Sounds like he was getting access to more than just documents.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 11:00 pm
tvb – you said “if the Lt Colonel was that good at what he did he would have retained a position in Parliament” etc.
Chris2 answered that but let me put it another way, he couldn’t retain his position in Parliament (Parliament?) unless someone else offered him employment as their ministerial advisor the very next day etc. If SEJ’s expertise is in defence, then he wouldn’t have many other opportunities etc and presumably Wayne Mapp doesn’t need another advisor anyway. (Let’s face it SEJ is probably damaged goods now for leaking that document to the media so probably won’t work for another minister again etc).
So if SEJ leaked the document, to which Heather Roy was suprised and embarrased about when she and Rodney Hide were making up to the media, is this really all her fault?
As for party pills, ACT on Campus were reportedly handing them out to students only a few years ago – so maybe at the time they were quite commonplace to some segments of ACT?
Vote:August 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 am
The possibility of a Lt Colonel getting unauthorised access to top military secrets at Heather Roy’s behest has nothing whatsoever to do with Act political success. Or was the good Colonel threatening the Act party with political trouble UNLESS he got that access. Whatever way you look at this Heather Roy through her relationship with the good Colonel was building up a heap of trouble. It showed she was flakey, over reliant with a totally unsatisfactory person and Rodney Hide was dead right to deal with her and the Colonel. Yes there is political trouble for the Act Party in the short term the Colonel has followed through with his threat to do that. He even spent considerable time making up a dossier and has admitted releasing it. I am speechless at the nerve of this person. Military values of loyalty do not come into it. I sincerely hope the Army take away his rank. His actions against the Government in my view would justify his Court Marshall. There needs to be a security investigation into what he was doing with top military secrets and whether this is incompatable with his continued rank.
Vote: