JENNINGS NO STRANGER TO MIXING BUSINESS AND POLITICS

  • Winston Peters
Deputy Prime Minister

ACT MP Owen Jennings is no stranger to public controversy having established a reputation for mixing business and politics in his hometown of Nelson.

Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters said Mr Jennings' antics had been well documented in the local media which raised questions about a conflict of interest between Mr Jennings' business interests and his chairmanship of the Tasman District Council's planning committee.

"In 1994 and 1995 Mr Jennings was the head of a consortium of businessmen who planned to build a $97 million super port called Port Kakariki. Jeff Law (the man at the centre of the scheme discussed in Mr Jennings' Parliamentary office) has a close association with Mr Jennings.

"To gain planning approval Mr Jennings would have had to make an application to himself, raising a conflict of interest, according to the Nelson Mail.

"In one article the paper states:

"Cr Jennings suggests that a conflict of interest might exist only if there is a formal planning application for Kakariki, but that is not so. Planning for the port is already well advanced, large sums of money have been committed and the Mapua area is clearly part of the plan.

"Cr Jennings and the council can continue to pretend the conflict of interest does not exist, but the consequence is erosion of confidence in the Tasman council's planning mechanism and in the probity and procedures of the council itself."

Mr Jennings was later thrown out of office by ratepayers at the local body elections in October 1995.

According to earlier reports in the paper the Port Kakariki concept was originally the brainchild of consulting firm Guiness Gallagher chaired by none other than ACT leader Richard Prebble. Other members of the firm included a former member of the SOE unit who advised Mr Prebble on the sale of State assets, when Mr Prebble was Minister of SOEs in the Labour Government.

"We all love a good yarn, but this one really takes the cake. Mr Jennings and those boys in ACT like to have all their own way. Unfortunately these things have a horrible way of catching up with you," Mr Peters said.