The furore was sparked by Jones telling BusinessDesk in August he feared the system was becoming a \u201cslow-track\u201d and suggested the culture at the EPA was to blame.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s either a matter that the personnel are the problem, the culture is the problem, or the law is the problem \u2013 because I refuse to accept that all the applicants are the problem,\u201d Jones was reported as saying on August 6. <\/p>\n
Shane Jones is brushing off the fallout from his controversial “exterminate” comments about public servants.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe applicants are trying to invest and develop jobs and create infrastructure, and if I get any hint that they\u2019re being deliberately undermined, then as God as my witness, that problem will be exterminated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those comments did not go down well at the EPA.<\/p>\n
Documents released to the Herald under the Official Information Act show EPA chief executive Dr Allan Freeth emailed his board chairman Barry O\u2019Neil and Ministry for the Environment chief executive James Palmer to express his horror and to call for action to be taken.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am concerned about the impact on our staff with this type of unacceptable, threatening comment,\u201d Freeth wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cMay I suggest we raise this with our minister asap as a concern and ask that she speak with her colleague. I wonder what the PSC [Public Service Commission] responsibility is here. This is not a matter of being overly sensitive, but the use of the word \u2018exterminated\u2019 no matter the retail politics and hyperbole does leave a \u2018chilling\u2019 feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Replying to Freeth, O\u2019Neil described the comments as \u201cunhelpful, unnecessary, unenlightened, and unacceptable coming from a minister of the Crown\u201d.<\/p>\n
Environmental Protection Authority CEO Dr Allan Freeth was concerned about how Shane Jones’ comments would affect staff. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Later that day, fast-track application manager Richard Preece called staff in to a meeting to discuss the \u201cdisparaging\u201d comments, according to internal communications released to the Herald.<\/p>\n
EPA staff were told by Preece to ignore Jones\u2019 stern words.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease do not give the comments that Shane Jones has made any credibility. They do not accurately represent the work you are all doing to make this process work,\u201d Preece said.<\/p>\n
In a screenshot of a private message posted to social media, an EPA employee said: \u201cMy team just got called into a room with [redacted] and [redacted] told [redacted] that Shane Jones had threatened to fire people in the team\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething about how the culture at [redacted] is stopping applications from going through and if he finds anyone being prohibitive then he\u2019ll find them and fire them himself,\u201d the message said.<\/p>\n
Two days later, the union representing public servants, the Public Service Association (PSA) got involved, according to internal messages from the EPA.<\/p>\n
PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons told the Herald this week that Jones\u2019 comments were \u201cgross and offensive\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a reasonable assessment that Shane Jones was suggesting that public officials at the Environmental Protection Agency would be exterminated and that people would read that as their dismissal,\u201d Fitzsimons said.<\/p>\n
PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons says Shane Jones should apologise for his remarks. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray<\/p>\n
She said the union has supported multiple members who had raised concerns about the comments, as well as raising it directly with the EPA.<\/p>\n
Fitzsimons said Jones should apologise for the remarks.<\/p>\n
But the minister is not apologising, telling the Herald yesterday the \u201cbureaucratic system is struggling to implement\u201d fast-track rules because they are \u201cpro-growth, pro-development legislation\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have the power to fire anyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fear that the EPA may very well have people who are better suited to an ideological nunnery, rather than delivering on the Government\u2019s manifesto and stated outcome to rapidly grow the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Comments made by Regional Development Minister Shane Jones had reportedly shaken the confidence of some fast-track applicants. Photo \/ Mark Mitchel<\/p>\n
Freeth told the Herald in a statement he was \u201cdisappointed and concerned to read the comments by Minister Jones about the EPA\u2019s fast-track performance\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was concerned about the impact these comments could have on the wellbeing of our staff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neil raised the issue with the Public Service Commission on August 13.<\/p>\n
The next day, he discussed it in a regular meeting with Environment Minister Penny Simmonds. <\/p>\n
He then wrote to Jones on behalf of the EPA on August 22, expressing his disappointment in the comments and standing by his staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can assure you that the EPA is committed to fulfilling its role to implement the fast-track process. The EPA board and management take the expectations of ministers and Government very seriously and recognise the importance of fast-track to the economic prosperity of New Zealand\u201d, O\u2019Neil said. <\/p>\n
He said staff had \u201cdelivered an enormous amount of work in a very short timeframe\u201d and Jones\u2019 comments had shaken the confidence of fast-track applicants.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, in the past week, staff have begun to hear reservations from applicants about whether it\u2019s worth engaging in the fast-track process. In addition to the negative impact on EPA staff, we are concerned that these statements may be reducing confidence in the process for applicants.\u201d <\/p>\n
Jones said the pair had met to discuss the issues on September 11 and O\u2019Neil had sought to go back and identify where things could be done more efficiently.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to see less kumbaya and more kia kaha,\u201d the minister said. <\/p>\n
Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The furore was sparked by Jones telling BusinessDesk in August he feared the system was becoming a \u201cslow-track\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,3041,44974,26952,3500,3937,5782,44976,170,44973,3938,44978,24572,10113,44975,42,78,2176,3935,6722,42677,43,90,10057,15381,5914,3170,7228,12419,40,38,41,39,44979,44977,3007],"class_list":["post-52443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-agency","tag-allan","tag-blasted","tag-ceo","tag-chief","tag-comments","tag-consents","tag-development","tag-environmental","tag-executive","tag-exterminate","tag-fasttrack","tag-feud","tag-freeth","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-jones","tag-managing","tag-minister","tag-ministers","tag-news","tag-on","tag-problems","tag-protection","tag-regional","tag-scheme","tag-shane","tag-threatening","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-undermining","tag-vowed","tag-vs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}