So, as others have noted, our Prime Minister John Key has said he thinks Rodney Hide has handled the David Garrett fiasco well. The Herald reports John Key said Hide “has shown very good judgment” and has his full support.

No-one else believes that, so what is going on?

In my opinion, it shows John Key to be just another politician.

It pains me to use that phrase, because it demeans all politicians and our parliamentary democracy.

Sometimes the mistakes made by MPs in any party reflect so poorly on the institution of parliament and MPs that most New Zealanders think less of us as a group and have less confidence in our democracy. Most MPs feel a degree of shame when this happens.   This week’s events are a case in point. It is not so much what David Garrett did many years ago, as the deception and hypocrisy by ACT since.  The public are right to feel misled and distrustful.

So when John Key says he stands by Rodney Hide and ACT’s handling of this, I feel let down by my Prime Minister. I do expect him to uphold the integrity of Parliament. He has not.

Rodney Hide has lost any shred of the moral authority that a Minister needs to maintain the confidence of a Prime Minister.

Now, I am not calling John Key dishonest or corrupt. But he trades on being different. On not being like other politicians. Yet, he so plainly is. The litany of bad mistakes he has tolerated in order to maintain his hold on power is long enough to make the conclusion that he is no higher being.  I won’t list them all but they include:

• Allowing Hide to criticise National as being weak, lazy and easy to manipulate
• Giving Hide more rope when the perk buster was busted on his ministerial perks
• Letting Hide choose Boscawen (an MP with less than 2 years experience) to take over Roy’s portfolio in his Government when Hide and Key both said she had performed well as a Minister and it was clear what was going down was an internal implosion caused in no small part by Rodney Hide’s bullying and other mistakes
• Allowing  Bill English to stay on as Deputy PM and Minister of Finance after changing accommodation expense rules to profit himself (or his family trust)
• Brushing over Phil Heatley’s abuses of his Ministerial privileges

Add to that the latest errors of judgment by Hide and ACT, which have exposed ACT to ridicule and irrefutable allegations of hypocrisy and poor judgment.  John Key’s response, to back Rodney Hide and express confidence in him, shows he is in no special category of politician.

What should the leader of our country have done, you ask?  Well, Phil Goff called it correctly.  John Key should have stripped ACT of all its ministerial warrants. They are scandal ridden and unworthy.

After less than two years into its first, and I hope only,  term John Key’s government is tainted by disrepute.  John Key is the leader of that government. The Prime Minister’s own brand is tarnished.

John Key has stopped walking alongside New Zealanders. They know Key is wrong to support Hide and ACT. He is just another politician.