Air New Zealand being investigated

[Dave Homewood]

www.radionz.co.nz/news/latest/200708151628/inquiry_under_way_into_troop_flights_to_kuwait_-_peters

[beagle]

do the government, who own a certain (big) percentage, not want them to make as much money as they can.

[corsair67]

A giant kerfuffle about nothing.

Do the Govt think that if Air New Zealand didn't carry the ADF troops, then they wouldn't have gotten to Iraq at all?

[corsair67]

I'm sure the ADF is going to give Peter's a full rundown on what each and everyone of its soldiers is doing now in Iraq or Afghanistan.



Peters wants details of Aussie troop assignments
NZPA | Thursday, 16 August 2007


The Government is making urgent inquiries about Australian troops flown to Kuwait by Air New Zealand after admitting it didn't know the national carrier was running the charter flights.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters said yesterday he didn't know whether the troops were assigned to military or reconstruction tasks in Iraq, which borders Kuwait.

He promised he would have more information in 24 hours.

Air New Zealand confirmed it carried the troops on two flights in June to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, saying it was a commercial decision to use surplus capacity.

Defence Minister Phil Goff said ministers first knew about the flights yesterday, although Air New Zealand told the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Murdoch, in mid-January about a "possible contract".

Mr Peters said Mr Murdoch was asked by Air New Zealand whether the contract could breach government policy, and Mr Murdoch had said that based on his initial information, it did not.

Mr Murdoch had asked the airline to keep him posted, but it appears no further information was passed on.

Mr Goff criticised Air New Zealand, saying it was "not appropriate" for the airline to carry troops to a war the Government did not support.

He said the Government could not tell Air New Zealand what to do.

"But we can certainly express our disapproval of that to the company and I and other ministers are intending to do so," he said.

The Government has a majority stake in Air New Zealand and the shareholding ministers are Mr Peters, Mr Goff and Finance Minister Michael Cullen.

National's foreign affairs spokesman, Murray McCully, said the situation raised questions about the "no surprises" policy between senior officials and ministers.

He said it was "somewhat embarrassing" for the Government seeing it had recently targeted National's leader, John Key, over whether he would have sent troops to Iraq.

Green Party MP Keith Locke said the flights were "completely unacceptable" and the Government should apologise to the public.

"Will the Government next be saying we can ferry nuclear weapons around the globe?" he asked.

Mr Goff said it wasn't embarrassing because the Government hadn't known about the flights.

Investigate magazine broke the story, issuing a statement yesterday ahead of publication today.

Mr McCully also yesterday questioned whether the department's relationship with Mr Peters was dysfunctional – resulting in its failure to inform him of the matter.

Mr Peters today said he was yet to speak to Mr Murdoch.

"I know that he is engaged in a whole lot of other inquiries around the place to put together a subsequent and chronological list of events and times and facts and I expect to have them very very soon today," he said on Radio New Zealand.

But he said his relationship with his department was excellent.

He said it was not yet clear whether Air New Zealand had acted directly against Government policy.

If the Australian troops were involved in Afghanistan or in reconstruction work in Iraq, rather than combat work, then there was no problem.

He said a claim in the Investigate article that one of the Air New Zealand flights was escorted into Kuwait by fighter jets was wrong.

[Peter Lewis]

As any business student will tell you, that conundrum is the sting of running a business that is basically owned by the Government:

Either
you tell the managers to run it as a business, with the sole aim of maximising the profit, and then stand well clear. When, as a result, the widows and orphans are cast out into the snow (or when the airline makes money out of politically insensitive charter flights) you just keep repeating as a mantra "It's nothing to do with me, you'll have to ask the managers who are paid to run the business" while you watch you political credibility crumble

Or
you micro-manage, telling the managers who are paid to run the business, to do or not do this that or the other for non-economic non-business politically orientated reasons (like running airline services to Kaitaia) and put up with the business turning into a money-losing job-creating featherbedding exercise while you watch your political credibility crumble

You have to feel sorry for the politicians sometimes.

[flyjoe180]

Storm in a tea cup; if Air NZ hadnt accepted the charter someone else would have flown those troops.

[flyjoe180]

A new spat with the government has erupted relating to Air New Zealand ferrying Australian troops.

Air NZ chairman John Palmer wrote a letter to Prime Minister Helen Clark expressing his reservations that she used information, given in confidence, about troop flights to the Solomon Islands.

The scrap relates to a row that began earlier this month over the airline - which is two-thirds owned by taxpayers - ferrying Australian troops bound for Iraq to Kuwait. The New Zealand government, which does not support the war, expressed disapproval over the arrangement.

As a result, Australia decided not to use the airline for further military charter flights.

Air New Zealand is upset Clark revealed the Honiara-bound flight, complaining it breached an agreement to keep commercial information secret.

But a spokesman for Clark says Air New Zealand never spoke directly to her about the matter and instead she was briefed by officials.

Clark says MFAT told her on August 17 that a plane would carry Australian troops home from Honiara that day, and she mentioned it three days after it had happened.

"Anyone who's been to the Solomons knows it's not exactly a secret to have a plane land at the Henderson airfield," says Clark.

The government has responded to the carrier via a letter that is understood to ''express surprise'' about Palmer's letter becoming public, and it points out the information was ''not confidential in any sense''.

"Dr Cullen will be making it clear to Mr Palmer that the suggestions in his letters that confidential information was misused are simply absurd," says Clark.

But National's deputy leader Bill English is not buying the government's line that the information was not confidential or commercially sensitive.

"Is it now the case that the government believes it can use any information, in any way it likes, for any political purpose, without any regard for the effect on Air New Zealand's business," says English.

Clark has dismissed the oppositions claims as "transparently silly".

Air New Zealand is not commenting on the issue.


tvnz.co.nz/view/page/1320238/1334774

[corsair67]

Note to Winston: make sure you pay attention to that stuff that goes into your "In Tray" - some of it may actually be very important!



No one read Air NZ Iraq troops report
By HAYDON DEWES - The Dominion Post | Wednesday, 10 October 2007

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters told Parliament his office had no reports on Air New Zealand's plans to fly Iraq-bound Australian troops to Kuwait.

Now he has been forced to admit his office had received a report - but no one read it.

However, Mr Peters is rejecting National's claims that he misled Parliament - as he had been specifically asked whether he had been told by his ministry of the flights.

The security report had come from the multi-agency Combined Threat Assessment Group, which is not part of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The information was not passed on to Mr Peters - as the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry staffer in Mr Peters' office had not read it.

The information is revealed in the flurry of e-mails, obtained under the Official Information Act, between MFAT and the Government after the flights became public in August.

The Government ripped into Air New Zealand at the time for "blindsiding" ministers when the flights were revealed.

It later became clear that the airline had told MFAT, but the detail was not passed on to the Beehive.

Dozens of officials in several agencies and ministries knew of the potentially controversial flights, but had not told the Government.

However, National's foreign affairs spokesman Murray McCully said yesterday that Mr Peters' assurances that his office knew nothing of the issue "was 100 per cent wrong".

While technically correct, his answer was mischievous.

"Mr Peters must have been aware of the significance of the question, which I had to ask him five times before receiving his assurance."

But Mr Peters angrily denied being "cute" with his response.

"I was asked a specific question by Mr McCully - read the Hansard - and I said to the best of my recollections no. No amount of twisting by (Mr McCully) will change that fact."

Mr McCully also questioned why high-level security reports were not read by staff in his office.

Mr Peters said he would be faced with "tens of thousands" of reports if he read everything that came into his office.

It is understood he was about to head overseas when the report landed. Correspondence passed to him by staff had deliberately been kept to a minimum.

[andyc]

Lets see if I've got this right:

ANZ gives NZ Govt advance warning (5 months) of this contract and asks if it breaches govt policy - Govt does nothing.

The govt then slates ANZ in the press for taking the contract while at the same time stating that (as majority share holder) they have no influence over ANZ - which they own.

The 3rd party then cancels the contract.

From here it looks like ANZ has been shafted so the govt can voice its disapproval of the Iraq war.

ANZ lose the contract.
The Aussies find someone else - plenty of yank carriers will take their money.
NZ Govt appears to be indecisive - maybe even incompetent. If they were THAT bothered about the contract they could have stopped it in January - giving ANZ time to find other work for the excess capacity.




Andy

[flyjoe180]

Sounds about right.

[Dave Homewood]

Well done Helen.