Heather du Plessis-Allan: Nanaia Mahuta should be sacked, but she's going nowhere

National might be on to something here. 

Chris Luxon, just in the last couple of hours, has called on the Prime Minster to sack Nanaia Mahuta for openly defying the Prime Minster.

So what’s happened is that a document has emerged that shows that Cabinet collectively agreed back on 30 May this year not to do the Three Waters entrenchment.

But then, as we know, Nanania and the Greens stitched up a little deal where they did it anyway. Just at 60 percent not 75 percent.

And as we know, this caught a lot of senior Labour Cabinet Ministers by surprise. The Prime Minister didn’t know the entrenchment had passed until afterwards.

Neither did Chris Hipkins who is the Leader of the House, and neither did David Parker who is the Attorney General and who advised against it.

So it’s starting to look like there is a chance. Nanaia Mahuta just went ahead and did what she wanted anyway in defiance of Cabinet.

Now that would be, the Nats argue, in breach of the Cabinet Manual by acting against the instructions of Cabinet.

And it’s frankly embarrassing for the PM to be ignored. 

Now if the Nats are right, if Nanaia has defied the PM like it looks increasingly that she might’ve, she should be sacked.

And it’s not only this, but it’s also the fact that she’s stuffed this legislation up so badly that councils up and down this country hate it.

And also there’s the lingering perception that something isn’t quite right about her husband attracting all those Government contracts. There is more than enough against Nanaia Mahuta to sack her.

But she will not be sacked.

She is one of the leaders of the Maori Caucus and they are powerful. I doubt very much that they’ll let the PM sack her.

Nanaia is untouchable. You can see that from the way the PM has gone out of her way to defend Nanaia in this and say it was a team mistake.

So even though Nanaia is causing all kinds of problems for Jacinda, and even though the Nats are right in that she’s probably done enough to be sacked, I bet you now she’s going nowhere.

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