Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB political editor on Regional Development Minister Shane Jones' controversial comments on the judiciary

Minister Shane Jones has offered up apologies after receiving a talking-to from the Attorney-General.

Jones called one High Court judge a communist, and compared some judicial decisions to totalitarianism.

Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls is hopeful this is the end of the controversy - as Jones is no stranger to breaking Cabinet rules.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB and with me now.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
We have news Talks. He'd be Political editor Jason Walls.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Good morning, Jason, Good morning for Francesca Wright.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Shane Jones he got a telling off for having a
crack at a judge. Where are we at with us
if we put this.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
To Beard, I think we have. I mean, Shane Jones
is no stranger to coming under some clouds of controversy
when it comes to as brushes with the Cabinet Manual.
The Cabinet Manual of course being the ministerial rule book
that they have to adhere to. And of course he
had a crack at a judge a couple of weeks
ago where in a meeting he essentially said that they're
a communist and then he defended that by saying, well,

(00:45):
actually this said Judge or Justice when they were in
their younger years, was a member of the Socialist Action League.
And despite this, you know, he held true to what
he was saying. He said, nope, it's all factual. And
then when pressed on it, he said that the he
made comments about how the system was totalitarianism again, which

(01:05):
you're not allowed to do. You're not allowed to comment
on that level of the judiciary, and it earned a
rebuke from Judith Collins, who was the Order to the
Attorney General rather telling him to essentially you need to
rein their send. So they had some sort of meeting
behind closed doors to talk about it, and then he
called one of my colleagues at the Herald, Jamie Ensaw,
to basically do a Mayor Coulper and say, yes, I

(01:28):
was too, You're in treacherous territory when you talk about
the judges like that. I'm going to stick to talking
about the things that he's more passionate about, which is
basically making fun of the Green Party and talking up
the oil and gas sector. So you know, this is
the sort of thing that happened when he was last
in government, when with jacindaar Derne he made some cracksit
in New Zealand at Fonterra and he was not allowed

(01:49):
to do that as well. So he's no stranger to
controversy as old Jonesy.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
No, it creates a bit of entertainment but a little
bit naughty. At the same time, Chris Hopkins has again
been musing about a capital gains tax.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Indeed he has. He was talking about it when he
was on Kerry Woodhams show Yes on Fridays, rather just
about how the Labor Party would have some sort of
broad based capital tax at the next election, and it
would be he didn't quite confirm it would be a
capital gains tap instead of be a tax on capital,
so you could always you could see where that's coming from.

(02:23):
And he hasn't ruled it out in the past either,
So listen, it's not really surprising. The Labor Party have
been not flirting, but outright trying to marry a capital
gains tax since the early two thousands and even before that.
It's been talked about at length, but they've never managed
to get it across the line. I mean, Jacinda Dern
made the Captain's call not to implement one between twenty

(02:44):
seventeen and twenty twenty, but they had that tax working
group that decided yes, you should have a capital gains tax,
and then she ultimately decided to go against the advice
of Sir Michael Cullen and his group and say that
as long as she's Prime Minister she wouldn't implement one.
So Chris Hopkins, if he runs on the tax capital
gains tax package in the next election, is going to

(03:06):
face quite the uphill battle because if Ja Sinda don
can't get it across the line, I don't know how
Chris Hipkins will.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
And Jason just quickly. The Prime Minister has been overseas,
but as Beck this week, what are you expecting to
play out in the House?

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, it was an interesting what you didn't really hear
too much about the Prime Minister overseas this week. He
was in Malaysia and heres in Korea. But he's gonna
be back this week. We're gonna see obviously some more
of the Argie Barge in the House that we've all
come to know and love. But we're expecting the Gang's legislation,
the Gang Patch Band to go through the House this week,

(03:39):
so expect that to be one of hot debates, and
just various different other issues as well. But it'll be
interesting to see the Prime Minister kind of be swinging
back in action here in New Zealand. He has well,
hopefully his post cabinet press conference tomorrow where he always
comes armed with some sort of announcement, So we'll wait
with baited breath to see what that is.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
We shall thank you so much. Jason Good to catch up.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
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