The Pansy Wong saga has highlighted an on-going trend in the way this National government operates. They certainly do practice what they preach in terms of “self-help/help yourself”. It seems they’re out to get everything they can off the taxpayer until they get caught.
Bill English tried to pretend that he lived in Dipton so that he could claim a housing allowance, even though his wife and kids all lived in Wellington. He even went so far as to ask for more money to have his house cleaned.
John Key decided the best way to deal with the housing allowance scandal was to put in place a new, more generous system for them to rort, with a lot less transparency. Many of them effectively got a big fat pay rise as a result.
Phil Heatley thought it was OK to charge up drinks at the National Party conference to his ministerial credit card. He then took his family on holiday to the South Island and thought it was OK to ask the taxpayer to stump up for the bill for that too.
Richard Worth thought it was acceptable to mix his ministerial and private business interests, travelling to India and using his ministerial title to promote private interests. He was up to some other stuff too, but goodness knows what (it was enough for John Key to lose confidence in him, but he never did say why…)
Anne Tolley decided to take a literal interpretation of the term ‘helicopter view’ and took a taxpayer funded helicopter sight-seeing trip over Auckland.
Pansy Wong thought it was alright for her husband’s business interests to be subsidised by the taxpayer, through abuse of her international travel privileges and also possibly by using her taxpayer funded office as the premises for private business interests.
After nine years in opposition, the National Party seem to be making up for lost time. They’re out for everything they can get. What appals me is that John Key seems to think it’s OK to pass the buck and try to help them cover things up. Classic case of do as I say, but not as I do.
