Sacked for corruption

So, after interfering with the police, and then interfering with immigration decisions, Stuart Nash has finally been sacked:

Stuart Nash has been sacked as a minister, after Stuff revealed he had emailed business figures, including donors, detailing private Cabinet discussions.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed the people Nash emailed were donors to his campaign, which he said was a serious breach of trust and expectations for ministers.

“His conduct is inexcusable,” Hipkins said. “He is no longer a Cabinet minister and won’t be coming back.”

Good. Because there's a name for spilling sensitive cabinet information to your donors: corruption. People who do that should have no place in cabinet, no place in parliament, and indeed no place in our politics at all. So its not enough for nash to just be sacked: he needs to resign from Parliament as well.

While on this occasion Nahs was just venting, the real worry here is what else he has disclosed, and whether anyone made money off it. Because that's a serious criminal offence, and one which would cast serious doubt on the integrity of our political system.

(Meanwhile, pre-sacking, Newshub had raised the issue of how Nash could possibly be seen as holding a credible inquiry into forestry slash when he had received thousands of dollars in donations from the forestry industry. Its a good question. And the fact that he was appointed Mininster of Forestry with those donations hanging over him shows very poor judgement on the part of those who appointed him).