Jami-Lee Ross is no longer resigning from Parliament, saying he wants to stick around to keep dishing out dirt on the National Party.
Ross on Tuesday announced he was going to resign from Parliament before Leader Simon Bridges said the caucus had decided to expel him.
Ross was expected to hand in his resignation on Friday, but told Newstalk ZB he'd changed his mind.
This means he'll remain in Parliament as an independent MP for Botany, so there won't be a by-election.
It also means he'll be protected by parliamentary privilege, so can't be done for defamation for whatever he says in the House or a committee.
A National spokesperson late on Friday responded to the development saying: “The National Party is considering all of its options.
"What Jami-Lee has done and continues to do is unacceptable and the more that comes to light the more we know we made the right decision to expel him from the Caucus.
"We are supporting those women who came to us as a result of Jami-Lee’s behaviour.”
Ross earlier told ZB: "The National Party’s now decided to smear my reputation as much as possible and I simply can’t run in a by-election on that basis.
"I’ve decided that it’s more important to continue talking about the National Party. I’ve decided it’s more important to continue to expose what I believe are serious flaws in the National Party."
Ross said there is a "rot" in the Party, as "people on behalf of the leadership get asked to do things so the leader is kept clean".
"I was asked to help exit Todd Barclay because he was becoming difficult for Bill English. Bill English was kept clean. Paula Bennett was pulling the puppet strings.
“I was asked to do things by John Key. I recall when there was difficulty around donations for the National Party. I was asked by John Key to go in and talk to the donor and see if there was something about the Labour Party that we could find out. John Key and I ended up discussing that later on in text messages."
Ross admitted to having a long-term affair with a National MP and a brief relationship with a former employee.
"A scab has been picked on the parliamentary personal issues. It has long been a case where personal matters are kept private, but the rules of the game have changed," he said.
"There's a lot of bed-hopping that goes on down in that Parliament. There's a lot of behaviour that a lot of people would want kept secret and has been kept secret until now. But the way in which we now play politics is that we lift the bed-sheets."
Ross also revealed another non-incriminating recording of a conversation he had with Bridges.
73 Comments
Or he's just realised that he's blown the chance of a job at ANZ
Here's John Key explaining a few things following a few of his frequent trips for breakfast, lunch and dinner in China. Do ANZ have a Shanghai branch?
https://vimeo.com/285987366
Yes they do... Been operating in China since 1986
https://institutional.anz.com/markets/china/en
You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours...
And here's John with Theo signing up for the Beingmate deal after a nice breakfast and lunch in China... Little did they know (or did they) that Synlait products, (sorry that's not majority NZ owned anymore) were going to be the preferential purchase of the Chinese parent. How much debt did we take on in that deal? Have ANZ underwritten it?
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=john+key+at+beingmate+deal&source=lnm…:
no they haven't - the purchase was written by offering 'dim sum' bonds to investors, written in yuan but purchased overseas.
https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/fonterra-raises-230m-dim-sum-bond-fund-be…
so the losses get socialised
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/100780871/hefty-loss-exp…
One year before departure.... Let's do this!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11…
I'm not sure I agree with the inference. He's admitting to one affair with with an MP. There are 46 female MPs, but in a modern world I don't think we can assume anything re gender. The whole of parliament is under suspicion now. #metoo is old news now we have #mptoo
NB: Comment was related to your pre edit comment.
he did say a sitting MP , i wonder if it will come out,
there are 19 in his party BUT it could be from another party which would make it very interesting.
i hope he spills more on the donations and the returns expected for those donations, we have always had a low visual level of government corruption or as we like to call it lobbying, and it would to me highlight national fight to distort the foreign buyer numbers and the fight against banning them as we know some REA agencies are big donors as are the big four banks
Mind you, she identified him - and described in detail (that none of us needed and I'm surprised Newsroom printed) the 'nature' of their consensual sex... so why shouldn't she be identified as well?
I hate gutter journalism where people make such gutter comments and accusations under the name "anonymous".
Ross' family suffered the indignity of his being outed - why not hers too - the sex was consensual folks.
PS Her name when you Google it - gives you an auto top search option of "[firstname] [surname] husband" - everyone's wondering who the real victim in this is and what he does, I guess.
Ok forget politics.
So he breeched embargoed information, he didn't own up, he was ok with his colleagues coming under suspicion, he stated he was going to stand down from Parliament but didn't, he stated he had evidence of criminal breech of the Electroal Act but didn't provided this, he had no respect for confidentiality with what was a private discussion, he has vowed to fight and take down the Party which ideals and values he supported, he bullied to get his wife into power, he harassed women, and was deceitful to his wife . . . . and I am just starting.
Plenty of negative adjectives can be applied.
Why should this scumbag (as Mike Hoskings refers to) be given any respect. He makes Donald who most despise look like a saint. He does not deserve either respect, to be listened to, or be able to draw a Parliamentary salary. A very sad person.
"he bullied to get his wife into power, he harassed women, and was deceitful to his wife . . . . and I am just starting.Plenty of negative adjectives can be applied."
And he had to answer for none of those to his National colleagues as long as he was a team player.
I am now wondering how the voters of Botany will react if they compare this to Pansy Wong going. What she did looks like jay walking compared to Ross, with the party falling all over itself to protect the guy but just cutting her loose.
Will they still dutifully vote National if there is a by election, or will they not bother to vote at all (can't see them voting anything but National). It would not surprise me if the entire Botany Chinese community compare this saga with the Pansy Wong affair and find much offence and loss of face in the whole thing.
To a degree, yes, both of them have given the same impression of being not on the level. Bridges has never come across as sincere to me, totally fake and what little I have seen of Ross, he has always come across as arrogant and self important, and slimy in the same way that Colin Craig from the first time I clapped eyes on him.
Both are ambitious and put themselves first, Bridges, being the little choir boy, might not have the same sort of proclivities that Ross does. This is fight to the death, Bridges will win this battle, he will invoke the waka jumping bill, even though they voted against it, and Ross will disappear. Bridges then has other credibility issues after that.
And he's got a family to support - and that's why family matters always have been and should have remained off limits.
I don't think he'd have had a s#it hope of winning Botany in a by-election before Paula's "inappropriate behaviour for a married Parliamentarian" comment - but given she did say it, he's right that that between-the-sheets political play totally screwed (sorry about the pun) his chances.
My guess is that had Paula Bennett not made her "inappropriate behaviour for a married Parliamentarian" comment, Newsroom might not have run the story from the anonymous women - even though they'd been researching it for some time.
In which case, we'd be having a by-election.
But Paula's comment gave Newsroom the entrée (i.e., grounds/license) to run with it - and I'm certain that wasn't by accident. I'd bet Paula didn't "okay" that line with Simon either.
It's all calculated theatre - ask Simon Lusk. Problem with this one for the actors - it's an improv show.
I nailed it - as I said above, But Paula's comment gave Newsroom the entrée (i.e., grounds/license) to run with it - and I'm certain that wasn't by accident. I'd bet Paula didn't "okay" that line with Simon either.
And today Simon's come out saying;
Last week, Deputy Leader Paula Bennett told the Herald issues raised with Ross had nothing to do with harassment but were about inappropriate behaviour from Ross as a "married Member of Parliament".
Bridges said Bennett has acknowledged that "she didn't get it all perfect".
He had spoken to her about the comments.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12…
If we can believe Simon, he had obviously not okayed Bennett's "married man" comment - so, can we speculate that Bennett was acting on her own accord and in cohorts with Newsroom (to my mind in no way would that comment of hers have just "slipped" out by accident - it was totally and utterly a deliberate and calculated comment on her part).
Was this her making a play to undermine and replace Simon? Have the women in National had enough?
If internal polling is a bad as Ross told us it was, they can't wait a whole lot longer, can they?
Go the girls.
JLR is a cad and a bounder and turds float to the top sometimes but I think in the end all he has done is shown how murky politics is, be they National or Labour or whoever. How many sacred cows have been slaughtered in this saga so far. No one held guns to peoples heads and forced them to say anything - I think JLR just enticed out of people what they REALLY think. Fool on them.
I'm sure if he left parliament he'd land on his feet.
Well she signed a confidentiality agreement, one would expect money changed hands https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/10/18/282957/national-officials-must-an… see what conclusion you come to.
You have to wonder, because even if people do not officially know these things, there are always stirrings around the traps. I believe John Key would have known, not sure from there down who would have known and who would have caught the odd whiff of scandal within their ranks.
I believe Key knew because of the presence of Simon Lusk in this
Politicks and Money go hand in glove...wink ..wink. ( No fingerprints...hence the gloves).
If some did not see it before, you must have been asleep since the beginning of time.
Poor politicians have never retired.....poor. The poor House has been a misnomer for years......It is where the leverage is misplaced....so inflation can be the bane of a normal person's life, with limited funds, but a boon to others...who I must point out..."Make the rules: To be "Bent"
the damage to National is big,the voters now have no trust while Bridges as leader, prepare for a 2nd term of Labour, Jacinda and Labour must be very happy, they cannot believe their ears.
National seems to be self destructing and only seem to care about their own political futures than being an opposition.
New Zealand corruption being reported in international news:-
Chinese tycoon accused of trying to buy seats in New Zealand parliament as opposition crisis deepens
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/18/chinese-tycoon-accused-tryi…
MP's having extra marital affairs..... it's not really news is it, they've been doing it since before Caesar was a boy! I do appreciate that it's bad on the relationship and feel for the poor wife, her embarrassment/betrayal and anyone else who has had to suffer bad sex....let's remember there have not been any complaints about the quality of the sex until yesterday.
Now....Shall we move back to something that actually effects 5 million people rather than 2 or 3 and that is the complete corruption of NZ politics to Chinese political interests?
He is now on a crusade to destroy the Nats and lets face it, they deserve it, they are a pack of amateurs!
Needs a real clean out and to start again from the ground up.
If it doesnt happen, whats the bet that Jami drops a bomb just before the next election.......
National are pretty much screwed for the next election!!!!
Well, I think what we can all learn from this is that mental health issues are a serious concern in the workplace.
The brouhaha generated over some people insisting on identifying a leaker with these issues was really a 'jumping the shark' moment. How foolish everyone else looks now.
I wonder what responsibility Newshub will take for the way things have turned out.
IMO tv3 have been running with an agenda to get rid of Bridges and now it looks like they have failed for the time being..For weeks Garner has been hounding Bridges.
TV3 were given the leak from a person that obviously had health issues.Wouldn't have been prudent to tread softly with this information given that in their own words it would have been made public 1 or 2 days.
later.It appears to me that newshub want to create the news rather than reporting on the news.
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