frogblog

The Government was caught napping on Zimbabwe. Rod raised the issue with them in April. Now, in late July, having failed to do anything for two and a half months, they’re finally changing their tune. However, this changing of tune has required some incredible spinning that hasn’t really been exposed in the media coverage. One example of this is the legal advice the Government has on how to stop the tour.

On May 12, Rod asked Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff whether the Government had sought legal advice on this issue. The exchange during Parliament’s Question Time went as follows:

Rod Donald: Has the Minister sought legal advice on what steps the New Zealand Government could take to enable New Zealand Cricket to invoke the force majeure clause of its contract with other national cricket boards, so that its withdrawal from the tour would be acceptable non-compliance and therefore not subject to financial penalty; if not, why not?
Phil Goff: No, because that is a matter for New Zealand Cricket itself.

At some stage after May 12, Mr Goff clearly decided that he was wrong, and that seeking legal advice wasn’t just a matter for NZ Cricket, but also something the Government should get interested in. How do we know? Well, because in media reports time and time again in the past week, Mr Goff and Prime Minister Helen Clark cited legal advice they have which suggests they are powerless to prevent the tour. For example, go read this NZPA story from yesterday, which reads:

Prime Minister Helen Clark said on Monday that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s legal division had looked at the contract and it did not believe there was any reasonable action the Government could take…

Mr Goff told NZPA the advice he had from international lawyers was clear that the requirement for force majeure would be something that rendered compliance by NZC “impossible, illegal or likely to give rise to a serious risk of death or personal injury”.

He had no legal authority to instruct NZC what it should or should not do.

Or, go read this story in the Herald on Sunday:

Short of changing the law or withdrawing the New Zealand players’ passports - hard-line options that Mr Goff has ruled out - there is little the Government can do to prevent the team’s tour.

And it is loath to offer to cover the damages payments should the team pull out: Around $2.8 million would go to the ICC, whose policies it abhors, and millions more to Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe regime in compensation.

According to confidential Foreign Affairs Ministry legal advice, the only way NZ Cricket could invoke the contract’s clause to excuse it from paying compensation, was if the Government took hard-line action.

So, the Government’s whole “we can’t do anything - it’s all the ICC’s fault!” argument has been based on legal advice (which it won’t release) that there are no legal means they can use, short of revoking the players’ passports, to prevent the tour from going ahead. However, this morning I read in the Press that Goff is now seeking more legal advice from Crown Law on whether there is “wiggle room” in NZ Cricket’s contract.

Hmmm. Let’s get this straight. First step: Goff says he hasn’t sought legal advice because that’s up to NZ Cricket. Second step: Goff says he has legal advice from “international legal experts” which tells him there is nothing, short of revoking passports, the Government can do to prevent the tour, using this legal advice to rebuff Green Party calls for tougher action. Third step: Goff says he is seeking Crown Law advice on whether there is wiggle room in NZ Cricket’s contract, having said for weeks that there wasn’t any wiggle room.

Umm, how do you spell flip-flop? How do you spell shameful spinning? How do you spell bald-faced opportunism?

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