Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has stepped in and had a stern word to minister Shane Jones for going too far by calling for the Air NZ chairman to step down.
"Calling for the sacking of any board member is a step too far and I have told Shane Jones that," Ardern said this afternoon.
Jones has been under pressure for his fiery words to Air NZ for cutting its flights to Kapiti and Kaitaia. Earlier today he called for heads to roll on the board - including chairman Tony Carter.
Opposition leader Simon Bridges kept the pressure on Jones, condemning him for planning to enjoy Air NZ corporate hospitality at the airline-sponsored Barack Obama dinner on Thursday.
"Here's Shane Jones, who supposedly hates Air NZ, hates their board, but he's prepared to take their corporate hospitality and go to the Obama event on them," Bridges said.
Ardern said it was "entirely a decision for Shane".
She added that she was not going to fire him for calling for sackings.
"This is not a sacking offence. He's expressed an opinion, one that I know some New Zealanders will certainly share some sympathy for... but suggesting someone should be sacked is too far."
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has taken aim at the board of Air New Zealand, with his sights set on chairman Tony Carter first.
"Obviously you'd start with the chairman … I'm telling that board, in terms of the growth and connectivity in provincial New Zealand, it will not increase unless that board changes," Jones told RNZ this morning.
Jones, who has been highly critical of Air New Zealand's decision to cut flights to Kapiti, also warned Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon to butt out of politics.
"Do not poke your nose into the political boxing ring unless you're going to resign today and join the ranks of the National Party. This is a legitimate issue on behalf of those provincial areas who have been shortchanged. I've said all along, my focus is on the board."
Jones said there were other models besides cutting regional services which the Air New Zealand board could pursue to satisfy investors.
"If they are unwilling to adapt the model to deal with the degradation of provincial connectivity in aerial routes then they're not serving the purpose of the majority shareholder."
Jones was responding to comments earlier today from Luxon, who said independence from the Government had been good for the company.
"This company is an independent company and needs to be an independent company and doing so has been really good for Air New Zealand in terms of we can innovate the way we want to, we make commercial decisions so that we can invest in the right way, so we can buy aircraft that are really expensive … it's been a very good success story any way you'd look at Air New Zealand over the last wee while," Luxon said.
Luxon denied Air New Zealand had been shortchanging the provinces and said the company was proud of what it had delivered in the regions.
"That's partly why we took issue with Shane's comments yesterday, because while they are his opinions they're not consistent with the set of facts that we see."
Air New Zealand had delivered almost two million more domestic seats and reduced regional airfares 8 per cent over the last three or four years.
"We've got one of the best regional networks of any country on Earth," he said.
The National Party on Wednesday delivered a sharp message to Jones to pull his head in over his criticism of Air New Zealand's performance in the regions.
"Attacking public companies is a strange approach to economic development," National's regional economic development spokesman Paul Goldsmith said.
"It's nothing but economic vandalism for political gain. While this may give Mr Jones the attention he craves, this style of politics undermines business confidence and investment that improves the services to the public he says he's concerned about."
On Tuesday, Air New Zealand took the unusual step of spelling out to the Government the commercial relationship it has with the Crown after sustained attacks of its approach to the regions by Jones.
The airline has written to Finance Minister Grant Robertson, who represents the Government's 51% stake, and told him it will always act independently.
"Any appearance of a lack of commercial independence is viewed seriously by the Air New Zealand board and is ultimately potentially damaging to the interests of all shareholders, including the Crown.''
Luxon said despite clear ''terms of engagement'' there could be a misunderstanding about the Crown's stake and what it means.
"The Crown has the same rights as any other shareholder. That doesn't mean they can dictate the operations of the company, they can't use their majority shareholder position to make the company make non-commercial decisions," Luxon said.
"Decision making is with the company board and the Treasury expects all those decisions to be commercial."
In the wake of the axing of services to Kapiti, Jones said Kiwis in the regions got better treatment from second-hand car dealers than Air New Zealand, and issued a call to arms for regional mayors to save provincial flights.
The Air NZ board
Tony Carter, chairman
Jan Dawson, deputy chair
Rob Jager
Linda Jenkinson
Sir John Key
Jonathan Mason
Dame Therese Walsh
