Can someone remind me which party Stuart Nash belongs to?
The Herald yesterday said that Matthew Hooton, hardly a left winger, had arranged a fundraiser for Nash at the Northern Club, hardly a left wing stronghold. The Herald said:
Labour MP Stuart Nash pulled the pin on his own fundraiser at the Northern Club today, saying it would be inappropriate to attend because of the involvement of right-wing lobbyist Matthew Hooton.
Hooton is an old friend of Nash’s and had been involved in organising the fundraiser of about 20 of Nash’s friends since 2014.
Nash’s decision came after the Herald learned the $1000-a-head lunch was also a fundraiser for Hooton.
Nash said his decision to pull out was because Hooton had criticised Labour and his fellow Labour Minister David Parker in recent days over the ban on foreign buyers in New Zealand – criticism Parker has said was unwarranted.
It was more than criticism. Hooton basically defamed Parker. This is why the Herald pulled the story, presumably after Parker objected.
The reporting implies that Nash may still have attended the fundraiser if the Herald had not learned about it.
Nash has an interesting history.
He is mates with Cameron Slater. Just read any blog post of Slater’s that does not also include Judith Collins and see how positively he is treated.
He was implicated in an attempt by Simon Lusk to set up a centrist party. Friends of Lusk paid $20,000 to investigate the possiblity. Nash said he torpedoed the idea and did not know about it until the report had been prepared. Troy Bowker, the person behind the report, disagrees and says Nash told them to see him when the report was completed. Why Nash was having anything to do with one of the people most implicated in Dirty Politics is hard to understand.
He was also implicated in the attempt by Josie Pagani to set up a right wing faction within the Labour Party.
More recently as Fisheries Minister he made the alarming decision to slow down and possibly stop the implementation of monitoring cameras on fishing boats. Talley’s must have been very pleased with that decision. Cabinet considers this decision next week.
The fundraiser was for the Napier Labour Party. Maybe they should stick to chook raffles instead.
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