Shane Jones: Kiwibank board has gone bonkers

Thursday, 23 July 2020

Associate Minister for State-Owned Enterprises Shane Jones has slammed Kiwibank’s board of directors – telling RNZ’s Morning Report that they need to “get out of the pulpit”.

The bank has published a “responsible business banking policy” which it says outlines its commitment to “protecting the best interests of New Zealanders and the environment”.

It said it would withhold banking services from casinos, businesses involved in the extraction, production and manufacturing of coal, oil and gas, military grade weapons, businesses involved in non-medicinal and recreational drugs, palm oil, adult entertainment, predatory lending and tobacco.

It has since backed down on brothels.

**READ MORE:

* NZ First-linked company in government loan bid says it met with Shane Jones

* NZ Post reports $121 million loss due to declining letter volumes

* Battling to keep up mail volumes, NZ Post appoints new chairperson

**

But Jones was unimpressed and said he was seeking a “please explain” meeting with NZ Post board chairman Rodger Finlay. New Zealand Post owns 53 per cent of Kiwibank owner Kiwi Group Holdings.

Jones told RNZ he would tell the board: “The bank that goes woke may end up broke so hop down out of your sermonising and join the rest of the world.”

He said the bank’s role was not make moral judgements about what was an appropriate industry that could legally survive in New Zealand. “Their job is to lubricate capitalism.”

Jones said he was “not interested in banks wearing some sort of moral chastity belt” and did not accept that a Crown majority-owned bank had the authority to “write Kiwis out of the script” because they worked in sectors relying on oil, gas and coal. “And on whose behalf, mung bean activists?

“The board of the bank’s gone bonkers.”

In a statement, Kiwibank spokeswoman Kara Tait said: “Kiwibank, like all banks, is always considering the industries we should or should not be providing financial support to. These are a part of the choices we make as a bank.

“The policy we have introduced sets out our position on a number of sectors which we have determined may harm people or the environment. This aligns to our sustainability commitments and our purpose of making Kiwis better off. Like any policy we will continue to revisit its applicability and review as required.”