Shane Jones’ dinner invite to mining boss came with caveat: pay for yourself

Tuesday, 16 July 2024

The Labour Party has taken a swipe at Resources Minister Shane Jones over an undeclared dinner he had with industry figures in Westport, which Jones has said was off the books due to a “cock up”.

Labour resources spokesperson Megan Woods on Tuesday said that Jones has been “disingenuous at best” when he previously told Newsroom of the dinner that he met people “randomly, all over New Zealand … to have dinner is not a capital offence”. Jones subsequently corrected this, and his ministerial diary.

But an email from a staffer in Jones’ office, first reported by Newsroom and also obtained by The Post, has further shown there was nothing random about the February 16 dinner at Donaldo’s in Westport.

One of the dinner attendees, mining firm Bathurst Resources chief executive Richard Tacon, was invited to the dinner in the email four days prior, with the staffer writing Jones “was wondering if you would like to join him for dinner along with other mining sector people”.

“This is an informal dinner it would be appreciated if you could pick up your share of the costs if you attend.”

At the dinner were Tacon, deputy chairman of the Stevenson Group Barry Bragg, and vice president of Federation Mining Simon Delander.

All are on the board of mining industry group Straterra; none responded immediately to a request for comment on Tuesday afternoon.

“Far from a ‘last minute thing’, the Minister used his Ministerial office to arrange this dinner and then hid it from public scrutiny,” Woods said.

“Shane Jones would have understood that Stevenson Group would use the meeting to ask for their Te Kuha coal mining project, which has been declined in the past, to be approved under his government’s fast tracking legislation.”

Woods said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking “serious questions” about this.

Jones did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, but a spokesperson said: “As Minister Jones told journalists on 27 June, the omission of the dinner from his diary was cock-up rather than conspiracy and it has now been fixed in the diary. The matter is now closed.”

Jones has made no secret of his friendliness to the mining industry as he has pursued a policy programme aimed at doubling the $1 billion in mineral exports each year.

But this has attracted considerable scrutiny and criticism, particularly from environmental groups who have been alarmed by the Government’s plans for a “fast track” law that will allow Jones and two other ministers to consent, outside of regular processes, major projects.