National’s Jennhy Shipley became New Zealand’s first woman Prime Minister after a coup that overthrew Jim Bolger.
The legacy of both the Bolger and the Shipley neoliberal governments was that they opened up a huge gap between the rich and the poor in our country. They slashed benefits for example , as a result of which all the diseases that affect poor children the most all shot up.
Since leaving parliament Shipley has held many company directorships including a current one with Oravida which, amongst other things, sells bottled water to China.
Today she has been ordered to pay $6 million to the creditors of the failed construction company Mainzeal, as part of a $36 million award by the High Court against the company’s directors.
The reason? Allowing the company to continue trading while insolvent.
As a result of the Mainzeal collapse a lot of tradesmen were not paid , some of their businesses went under, and it caused their families a lot of stress.
Shipley lost the the 1999 election when voters asked themselves the question “What became of the decent society?”
What indeed
(And question, by the way,that is still very relevant today).
As many of you know I don’t allow abusive comments on my page and that rule holds as true for this post as it does for any other.
It’s possible that Shipley and the other former Mainzeal directors will appeal the decision, and get a more favourable ruling. But I suspect the High Court got it right today …and a good thing too.
Bryan Bruce is one of NZs most respected documentary makers and public intellectuals who has tirelessly exposed NZs neoliberal economic settings as the main cause for social issues.
Listening to radio reports yesterday, although i could be wrong, i got the impression that this bunch will probably be covered by insurance anyway? So much for justice.
Personal responsibility is for the peasantry, not monied aristos like Dame Jenny. It’ll be ‘how sad, too bad, never mind’, and all concerned will carry on as though nothing untoward occurred. There will be zero personal cost to anyone… other than all the subbies and tradies left out of pocket by Mainzeal’s disintegration.
I sincerely hope the tradespeople are able to receive some form of compensation for their their losses from the $36m fine. But then I guess that depends on what emerges from the likely appeal.
Also I can’t see any of the Mainzeal directors being stripped of their chairmanship of multi companies, or their titles either … you know, first offence and all that and don’t do it again, sort of thing!
Being first offence they will only get slapped over the wrist with a wet bus ticket
Do the small contractors who were not paid out intend to vote for the ‘aspirashunul’ party?
No. We will not.
Probably – based on a casual meeting with a digger contractor who regaled me with a story of how a Nat MP pulled the pin on a business deal and then lied in mediation – but he still voted for him.
What to say?
Any funding for Jenny’s other government-funded directorships have to be immediately reviewed. I will temper my words and show restraint here Bryan, how I’d like to unload though. I mean for her to beat down on the most vulnerable of society with her policies only to vomit up this in later years. Disgraceful.
I and my fellow work colleagues had the misfortune of meeting Jenny Shipley whilst she was Minister of Social Welfare in the 90s.
She asked one of my work colleagues as to what we thought of the Bay Collection Agency(the Agency the government of the day employed to collect debts). At that point we hadn’t even used Bay Collection and hadn’t had a clue as to how well they would do as a debt collector. All in all however I think we found them to be pretty damned useless. I think they actually created more debts for those who owed monies to NZ Income Support rather than reducing the debts.
Putting it quite mildly but she(Shipley) was bloody useless and self serving as a Minister back then and was probably of the same habit whilst a director in Mainzeal.
To this day I still find it rather puzzling that she jumped ship out of Mainzeal 2 weeks before it went bust. I got the impression she knew or someone in the government of the day had told her to get out of Mainzeal and she heeded that advice.
Looking at the fact she has been ordered to pay back $6million to the creditors of the failed company I somehow think she will slime her way out of it.
She is probably without morals or scruples but then I doubt her beloved National Party will be willing to pay the $6million.
And as a result perhaps she will be the ONLY pauper in NZ who gained a knighthood and still keeps it(like Doug Graham)for her actions and tactics. She will say she has been driven to bankruptcy due to this demand she pay $6million.
My thoughts however go out to those contractors that Mainzeal let down and failed to pay who may have been been driven to suicide. They are probably the ones who deserve the pity as well of their loved ones they left behind.
But then and I will be facetious here about National and its current as well as former MPs is it does look like National don’t care about others especially those who have say mental illnesses. The best National can do is one of its MPs texts someone she had an affair with to wish he was dead.
National MPs and especially former National MPs who gain knighthoods love money more than anything else. And any way to get more money even when it’s illegal doesn’t concern or bother them.
Anyway has Eminem received a cent from National yet or are they dragging that out like they usually do?
I doubt one cent of the $6million will be paid by one Jenny Shipley. It would be like them accepting responsibility for their actions and we know National are so allergic to accepting blame.
This doesn’t feel right.
If the losses were greater than the $36m punishment, then why aren’t they recovering more from these people.
It seems to be implying someone else was responsible, but I can’t see who, unless it was the auditors.
If Shipley and the others were responsible for reckless trading, then they should be liable for the lot, every single penny including interest and penalties.
And probably a stint in the lockup would show that this country is not soft on white collar criminals.
My guess? Because it is exhausting to be constantly wary of every little thing being a potential con.
Humans evolved to trust each other in a tribe, after all. Being in a state of constant distrust runs counter to that.
The kicker is the money taken from Mainzeal and ultimately its kiwi subcontractors, and “loaned” to Chinese businesses and not repaid, stealing from NZers to give to China. Driving the National business and many of its subbies broke.
Sound familiar? It’s what National having been all about fir 9 years.
Shipley is also hocking off kiwis water with Oravida taken for a pittance and given to the Chinese. Swamp kauri?
She is also the chair for China construction bank.
A traitor.
Just let Burton handle it all darlings! Jen’s got a hairdresser’s appointment, then a fitting with Kaaarren, and then a flight to catch.
I’m not sure she’ll be able to fit her appointment with the law in at the moment.
Busy busy business!
There are times in Politics that I wonder how some people get to where they did, like Shipley.
To me she always appeared to be a Fake, an empty talking head.
Rolled Bolger she was never democratically elected, just a slob.
It is a testament to her lack of integrity that she has not resigned already from her other directorships after being found guilty…
bettcha too that the little guy that lost the most and the clients who could afford it least get nothing from the ruling because our justice system and laws seems to have the lawyers and big players getting paid out while those poorest affected receive nothing…
… and the lawyers will probably trawl it though the appeals courts to avoid paying out too…
Good point SaveNZ, about Shipley not resigning. An honourable person would, of course, have resigned without question.
My long-term self-employed plumber was totally sunk, I think, when a building development he had the contract for, went bust. Either he or his wife told me about it, and then he vanished from the face of the earth.
Karma catches – Doug Myers and Roger Kerr both caught cancer and died, so Jenny Shipley cannot count on the devil looking after his own.
Haven’t weighed in on this one yet ..
It’s hard to have antipathy for her time in office due to being so young at the time. Though her time in office is beside the point?
Some people on here would see her imprisoned, which is probably fair, if she is guilty of committing fraud. It may even be fair if she has committed gross negligence.
To bevsarcastic I would say; “there is no point in sending her to prison, National’s prison reforms have made rehabilitation futile.”
She has been publicly disgraced and this has certainly been a costly fall from Grace! It is what it is – “pride comes before a fall”. Hopefully this will serve as a wake-up-call for her.
Not often I agree with you, Zack, but I think that’s a common sense approach. Prison serves no useful purpose, just another unnecessary expense paid by the taxpayer.
Better to put her on trial for fraud (alleged), strip her ‘honours’, and remove her right to stand on any Board for the rest of her life. Ditto for her colleagues. That’s a more fitting end to her career.
Couple of vile kunikuni’s.
I think Kunikunis are quite charming little creatures.
D J S
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