Today National MP Barbara Kuriger resigned her agriculture, biosecurity and food safety portfolios due to a conflict of interest - specifically, an ongoing dispute with MPI over the prosecution of her husband and son on animal cruelty charges. Party leader Christopher Luxon says that this is all Kuriger's fault - the conflict "wasn't registered, it wasn't recognised and it wasn't well managed." Sure. But there are always two people at fault in a situation like this: the person with the conflict, and the person who is meant to be managing them. Which in this case would be... Christopher Luxon. So we have a boss blaming his subordinate for his own failure to properly recognise and manage their conflicts and move them from an inappropriate position. Which is I guess exactly how you expect a big corporate CEO like Luxon to behave...
Except, this being the National Party, there's in fact more people at fault: Kuriger, for not managing her conflict; Luxon, for not managing her properly; and (of course) Judith Collins, who appointed her to the problematic role in the first place, and should likewise have been aware of the issue. You could also point the finger at Bill English and Todd Muller, who appointed her to the food safety and rural affairs portfolios. Weirdly, none of these people saw potentially being in charge of (part of) MPI while your husband and son are being prosecuted by it as a problem. Which tells you something about the level of governance and corruption in the National Party.
