Ardern misleads

NB: See final update at the bottom over the incorrect transcript sent by the PMs Office to me.

The Herald reports:

Jacinda Ardern insisted in an interview today that Clare Curran’s job as a minister was safe – despite the Prime Minister accepting the errant MP’s resignation the night before.

The under-fire Curran has quit as a minister, saying the pressure on her had become “intolerable”. She becomes the first casualty in the Ardern administration.

Ardern said in a radio interview with Newstalk ZB’s Chris Lynch recorded at 8am this morning that Curran’s job was safe.

But it has now emerged the errant minister told Ardern last night that she would quit – and Ardern accepted her resignation.

“Clare Curran contacted me last night to confirm her wish to resign as a minister and I accepted that resignation,” Ardern said today.

The Prime Minister told a blatant lie to Chris Lynch. She said Curran’s job was safe despite having accepted Curran’s resignation the night before.

This is a different situation to the more general one where a PM will always say they have confidence in a Minister until they don’t. That doesn’t apply once you have actually received or accepted a resignation.

Ardern knew when she spoke to Lynch, that she would be announcing Curran’s resignation later today. She misled him and listeners by saying Curran’s job was safe.

Not only is it a bad look for the PM to deliberately lie, but it also exposes the poor political management. They should have announced the resignation last night or first thing this morning, before the PM had to do any media.

UPDATE: The PM’s Office have contacted me to say that the Herald story summarised the PMs comments on radio incorrectly. The PM never explicitly said Curran was safe, just that she was not sacking her. I will post the transcript once I have it. So have updated the headline

If correct it is a deception, not a lie. Still very bad political management to split hairs and say on radio you are not sacking your Minister when you have already accepted their resignation. But not the same as saying they are safe.

Ironically what this confirms is that the PM doesn’t think anything Curran did was sackable and that she still had confidence in her as a Minister, if Curran wanted to continue.

The transcript is:

CL: Have you considered cutting ties with Clare Curran? Some would say she’s a liability.

JA: Keep him mind that she didn’t put a meeting in the diary and she lost her position in cabinet for it.

CL: Are you considering firing her?

JA: No, because I think she’s paid a price. I have huge expectations of my ministers and those in the ministry but I also accept that from time to time they will also have bad days. I have to kind in mind that we do want to make sure that we don’t set the bar so high that you have the situation that if you show a bit of human frailty you lose your job over it.

Again pretty bad judgement to say no I’m not considering firing her, when you have already accepted the resignation. It’s deceptive and misleading, but not a blatant lie.

If the PM really stood by what she said on the radio, she would have refused the resignation.

UPDATE2: I am now going back to my original conclusion. The transcript sent through from the PMs Office missed out key words. I just assumed the transcript was correct.

Below is the transcript sent to me by the PMs Office, and in bold are the words missed out.

Have you considered, have you considered as Prime Minister cutting ties with Clare Curran? because Some would say she’s become a liability to your Government. Keep him in mind that she didn’t put a meeting in the diary and she lost her position in cabinet over for it.

Are you considering cutting ties with her, firing her? No, because I think she’s paid a price. Right. I have huge expectations of my ministers and those in the ministry but I also accept that from time to time they will also have bad days. I have to kind in mind that we do want to make sure that we don’t set the bar so high that you have the situation that if you show a bit of human frailty you lose your job over it.

You can check this out at the audio here.

Now the words left out in the second paragraph change things significantly. Ardern was not simply asked are you firing her. She was also asked are you cutting ties with her. And when you have already accepted their resignation, the only accurate answer is yes.

I am very unhappy that the PMs Office sent me a transcript that was inaccurate. I didn’t verify it. I will be very very generous and assume they didn’t think the editing was significant (I note there were some other minor variations)  but leaving out the second “cutting ties with her” was a critical omission.