Shane Jones' attack on Simon Moutter could be viewed as his latest dig at corporate New Zealand or as a clever distraction from the furore over his Provincial Growth Fund.
Earlier this week Jones was being lambasted for this involvement in the granting of up to $4.6m to a Northland tourism project that he had a conflict of interest in.
Jones claims while he attended a ministerial meeting about the project - called Manea Footprints of Kupe - he was not part of the decision to approve funding from the $3 billion Provincial Growth Fund (PGF).
But emails released under the Official Information Act found Jones gave assurances to finance minister Grant Robertson that the project was viable before sign-off was made to fund it.
Jones was backed up by support from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern but appears to have been sailing close to the wind.