"Helpful" if Shane Jones had left funding meeting, but no harm done, says PM

"Helpful" if Shane Jones had left funding meeting, but no harm done, says PM
Pattrick Smellie
By Pattrick Smellie March 11 (BusinessDesk) - It would have been "helpful" if the minister responsible for the Provincial Growth Fund, Shane Jones, had not been in the room when a decision was made to fund a Far North District Council Maori tourism initiative with a $4.6 million PGF loan, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says. But while Jones had not managed "perceptions" of a conflict of interest well in a final meeting on the proposal, Ardern insisted that he had taken all appropriate steps to inform the Cabinet Office and to ensure that a...