As Regional Economic Development Minister, Mr Jones slammed Air New Zealand for abandoning the regions — something he could have helped stop with his $1 billion annual Provincial Growth Fund.
Deputy Prime Minister, and soon to be Acting Prime Minister, Winston Peters, appears to be backing his senior MP’s calls for Mr Wilson to resign.
Speaking to reporters before going into Parliament last Thursday, Mr Peters lambasted the dairy co-operative’s 2015 investment in China’s Beingmate.
In March. Fonterra wrote down the value of its Beingmate investment by $405 million to $244 million. Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings quit Fonterra in March. Beingmate has been struggling for much of the period since Fonterra spent $756 million on its 18.8% stake in 2015. It made a loss this year of about $208 million.
Mr Peters says the loss of several hundred million dollars needs an explanation and a response in the market.
Typically, when Mr Peters was pressed as to whom he was referring, he would not give a straight answer. Fonterra was formed in 2001 from the merger of the two largest co-operatives, New Zealand Dairy Group and Kiwi Co-operative Dairies, together with the New Zealand Dairy Board, which had been the marketing and export agent for all the co-operatives.
Fonterra effectively has monopoly control of the New Zealand domestic and export dairy industry. The merger was initially turned down by the New Zealand Commerce Commission, but later approved by the New Zealand Government. Subsequent legislation deregulating the dairy industry, allowing for the export of dairy products to be undertaken by any company, was introduced. What makes the comments by Mr Jones more interesting is the defence by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Although disagreeing with Mr Jones and his call for Mr Wilson to resign, Ms Ardern says the comments Mr Jones made were in a "personal capacity". He did not make them as a minister and it is not Government policy; end of story, Ms Ardern says.
This puts a new light on how comments made by any minister in the Labour-NZ First coalition are to be taken. There are some who will agree with Mr Jones when he says Fonterra is disconnected from the farming community.
Mr Peters railed against the Chinese investment into Dunedin meat processor Silver Fern Farms, and was ultimately unsuccessful. If his comments were being made now, are shareholder farmers being asked to believe they are being made in a personal capacity. Not likely.
Messrs Peters and Jones realise what power their positions bring. Both are experienced ministers in Cabinet. Mr Peters is to become acting Prime Minister soon and Mr Jones controls a massive regional development fund which is selective where it places funds. They understand their importance.
National says the attack by Mr Jones is all about ego and publicity.
When Mr Jones called in March for Air NZ’s directors to resign, the Prime Minister solemnly declared "calling for the sacking of any board member is a step too far and I have told him that".
Mr Jones does not seem to care what the Prime Minister has said because he has done it again by targeting Fonterra.
Ms Ardern also claimed Mr Peters suing the Government was a private matter.
There are obvious tensions surfacing within the coalition. Ms Ardern looks and acts as though she is in control. Whether she can maintain the discipline needed to keep the Government together has yet to be tested.
Mr Peters was sacked from Cabinet in 1991, sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998 and suspended as a minister in 2008. Mr Jones is not known for his discipline. The next few months will be interesting.
