When saying sorry is not enough

Media commentator Graeme Hunt says Rodney Hide’s public apology for using taxpayers’ money to take his girlfriend overseas doesn’t atone for his hypocrisy over MPs’ perks.

Hunt, a vocal critic of MMP and co-spokesman for the Put MMP to the Vote lobby, says the “loose” system of governance under MMP is in part to blame for the local government minister’s fall from grace.

“Under a majoritarian voting system such as first past the post, preferential voting or supplementary member, Hide would have been held to account by the prime minister for his actions and could have been sacked,” Hunt says.

“Unfortunately, the lines of governance are blurred under MMP. Coalition members, as we have seen with Maori MMP Hone Harawira, and coalition ministers such as Rodney Hide can behave badly with impunity. That is a direct byproduct of MMP.

“Saying sorry, in the case of Mr Hide, is not enough. He played fast and loose with the electorate over the issue of parliamentary spending when he himself was part of the rort.

“Mr Hide did not break the law and there is no doubt he is a competent, hard-working minister but he has got too big for his MMP boots. He is not alone in this.

“A smaller Parliament elected under a mainly non-proportional system would curb MPs’ spending and make the likes of Mr Hide and Mr Harawira more accountable.”

“Mr Harawira’s racist views are no surprise but Mr Hide’s blatant hypocrisy is. Mr Hide has done his party and his constituents a grave disservice and undone much of his previous good work.

“It will be difficult to take him seriously in future. The fact he has refunded the money used on taking his girlfriend overseas is of little consequence. He is big enough and old enough to have known the consequences of his action. It is clearly a case of MMP-fostered arrogance getting the better of him.”

ENDS

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