Minister demands veterans vote for his party

Newshub reports:

Newshub has obtained a video of Ron Mark seemingly pitching for votes at an event he attended as a minister. National’s accusing him of threatening to pull government funding if his party didn’t get votes.

Mr Mark is both Defence and Veterans Affairs Minister and a NZ First MP – and it seems the lines are bit blurry.
In December he gave a speech to No Duff – a charitable trust that offers support to veterans. The Minister slipped on his NZ First hat talking about his party’s polling and calling attendees out for their lack of support.
“To be perfectly honest, when I look at the polling results of my political party New Zealand First, then the veterans, the Defence base, you guys haven’t supported us. At all,” he said.

This should be a sackable offence as the Minister also told the attendees that the $25,000 grant they got from the Government was due to him personally and that they should recognise that and the responsibility that comes with it – ie to vote for them.

If he was a Minister in any other Government, he would be sacked for those comments.

This is not far off stand over tactics. Ministers should not be going to events to complain that not enough people there voted for their party and that the grant they got was due to him personally and imply it obliges them to vote for his party.