The Pansy investigation
November 28th, 2010 at 12:31 pm by David FarrarJonathan Marshall reports in the SST:
EMBATTLED MP Pansy Wong has been “interrogated” by officials over allegations of travel perk misuse.
The National MP and former minister is under investigation by Parliamentary Services after admitting travelling to China with her husband using a travel perk that entitled her to a 90% discount. Rules state the perk can only be used for private travel but her husband, Sammy, conducted business while there.
All of Wong’s travel, including 10 trips taken while a minister in the current administration, are under review.
Last week Wong was hauled into an “interrogation” by investigators, a source close to the inquiry said.
“Pansy was spoken to and it is expected the results will be ready within a few days,” the source said.
Good. Decisions should be made on the basis of a thorough investigation and the facts as they are revealed.
There are generally seven outcomes from MP “misbehaviour”. In rough order they are:
- No action taken at all
- Money is repaid, but no other action – various Ministers and former Ministers who had minor inappropriate spending
- A formal reprimand or warning – Phil Heatley
- A demotion but no loss of pay – Chris Carter, demoted from front bench to second bench over his perks
- Sacking/forced resignation from a role which results in loss of pay – sacked from Cabinet, or as Deputy Speaker etc
- Suspended or expelled from Caucus
- Criminal charges laid
No 5 has already happened. What we don’t know is whether the facts support No 6 or No 7 occuring. No 7 will not be a decision for the Government, it will ultimately be a matter for the Police of the SFO.
No 6 will be a matter for the party caucus. It is generally used over issues of party loyalty – Chris Carter for example was not suspended over his use of perks – he was suspended for his letter to the press gallery. Even Taito Philip Field was not suspended for his corrupt behaviour – he was suspended/expelled for saying he might stand against Labour.
It is possible No 6 could happen if Caucus felt that the report is so damning that Pansy should resign immediately from Parliament. However the view might be that having a by-election in election year is a waste of money, if (for example) Pansy indicates she will be retiring at the election anyway.
It is good the report is likely to be complete soon, as that will then allow judgement and decisions to be made.
Related posts:
- Arguably the most hypocritical statement of the decade
- Key on travel perk
- Pansy resigns, but will she be prosecuted?
- Pansy gone
November 28th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Exulsion from the party would only be justified by deliberate fraud or intent to misuse her ministerial position for private benefit. Sacking from Cabinet is a sufficient punishment for carelessness.
So which was it?
I will wait and see before throwing any stones. But I would be rather suprised if Mrs Wong had acted with intent. After all she has achieved by becoming New Zealand’s first Chinese-descent MP and irst Chinese-descent cabinet minister, serving as a beacon of hope and inclusiveness for women and especially for New Zealand-Asian communities, to risk all that to save a few thousands of dollars in airfares would be mad.
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Wong deserves the axe and expulsion from Parliament. C’mon, five trips to China in less than two years as minister? Indefensible!
She’s proven to be very skilled at abusing and exploiting the system to her advantage, the same art Chris Carter mastered.
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
All she achieved?? What has she achieved?? She was in ChCh when there a was a ceremony comemorating Kate Shepherd..she did not even turn up. My bet is she wouldn’t even know who Kate Shepherd was..The majority of New Zealand women can not relate to her in any way..She and the positions she holds should be cut..no use, no purpose , no rhyme or reason.
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
All these inquiries and committees.
Not like the French Revolution from 1789. Kneel down, clang!
Whoops! Wrong MP, never mind, plenty more.
Would have been great TV if they had had the technology back then.
Wonder if that’s where they got the word clanger from?
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
>including 10 trips taken while a minister in the current administration
Ten private trips involving flying in less than two years? I keep fairly busy and I’ve only managed one flying-required holiday in the last two years. I thought cabinet ministers were supposed to be snowed under with work?
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
So Rodney Hide got number 2 – and David, you characterise his as “minor inappropriate spending.” it was a deliberate act by the self proclaimed king of perkbusters, arguably the most astonishing act of hypocracy in recent parliaments. “Minor?” – ask the voters of Epsom nwxt year!
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
The Nat/Lab coalition has been in the practice of making examples for quite a few years now. Seems to stem back to when Anderton made an example of Sandra Lee for exposing too much cleavage on television. That was not the reason given but she never gave a public statement after that and was taken out of his caucus very soon after.
5 minutes later Liarbour decided moustaches had to go the day after women on television said they didn’t trust men with upper hair on their lips. Hence no movember growths in Liarbour circles. Obviously a tactic spread like a cancer to other parties.
After Sandra Lee got the chop Maori pollies started falling fast. Dover Samuels, John Tamahere, Georgina Te Heu Heu.
Horomia Parekura ironically opened his mouth and shot himself in the foot. Guess he needed personal notoriety.
Now Don Brash is back on the Maori band wagon. He’s not Maori bashing – as the media put it and Maori will as well –
He’s simply saying Maori aern’t special. Maori seats are archaic. But democracy is bigger than all of us. The nature of democracy is open political opportunity to all people, races, groups and ideologies. Italians, Greeks, Indians and Maori can have their own party. No need for Maori seats now.
Are Maori special?
Most iwi have their ancestral lands. Treaty grievances are nearly all paid out. National did a fantastic job in that area.
Culturally speaking Maori and independent and unique. Politically they are not. No, Maori are not special politically.
Each Maori has one vote like all others. Maori are divided across the political spectrum. They are a force politically in the
Maori party. That is their democratic right. That is the right of all New Zealanders. Now the Nat/Lab coalition is diminishing
that right with the revised EFB. Kiwi’s must not let these issues be clouded by red heriing rhetorics. The nation must keep
MMP to allow no one being special. The Nat/Lab coalition is betraying and defranchising us… not Maori.
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
wikiriwhis business … Well said.
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
With our honourable Minister, and her husband finding the time and funding for so many trips to China.
It just occurs to me that two Wongs don’t make it right!
Boom Tish.
I’ll get me coat.
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
Mainland Chinese don’t see a distinction between public and private – its about doing business wherever and whenever. This is not a moral issue, its just how it is. If New Zealand wants to encourage such people to come here, to some extent there is a need to adapt the framework under which we look at such things. Its not as if NZ-born politicians have set a clear example, after all..
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Sean at 9.25 posted:
Are you serious Sean? Or are you connected to the PR armies defending folk winding their way through inquiries, bankruptcy courts etc?
Our laws and standards of business morality need tightening after the finance company mayhem. If you think we should relax these standards and laws further and introduce a culture of bribes into this country you are seriously out of touch with reality and with the mood of the country.
Next thing you will be suggesting a Maoist Communist Party of NZ within our MMP system.
If you’d been around 60 years ago you would you have advocated NZ allow footbinding of infant girls? Or today would you advocate NZ allow female circumcision of Muslim infant girls?
When you migrate to a country, you commit yourself to adopt your new country’s laws and standards. Or you bloody well should.
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Rules are rules..there is no justification in bending them for anyone..as they are there to protect everyone..In my experience some Asians have trouble with rules because they are not used to abiding by them..they are not used to and do not understand consequences for breaking them..In many Asian countries , the way around rules is bribery. We ought to be maintaining our standards , not weakening them.
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
In my experience some Asians have trouble with rules because they are not used to abiding by them..they are not used to and do not understand consequences for breaking them..In many Asian countries , the way around rules is bribery.
That is more a function of the level of social and economic development of a place. Not necessarily of culture. There is not one place in the world, I would believe, which considers bribery and corruption a good thing. But poorer countries with less well established legal structures, and where civil servants and police are poorly paid are more likely to be corrupt. Also where economies and societies are transforming fast, and the legal system is trying hard to keep up with these massive changes. The situation during the so called ‘gilded age’ in the US, a period of rapid industrial and economic expansion, also saw massive levels of political and commercial corruption, and in fact is the West even today so perfect, when we see the world economic system brought to the brink by massive corporate corruption of, in the words of Brazilian President Lula da Silva, mainly ‘white men with blue eyes’.
The fact is the very Asian place called Singapore, is along with New Zealand the least corrupt place in the world, and East Asian confucian countries like South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan performing well also. At least far ahead of many Eastern and Southern European countries.
http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010
There is a cultural influence however, although not east-west. Even when comparing countries of similar levels of economic and social development, the least corrupt places seem to be North Western European Protestant countries, and their offshoots US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Perhaps this has something to do with the extensive familial relations which are nurtured and valued in most parts of the word, to a much greater extent than in the Anglo Saxon and Scandinavian countries.
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 10:33 pm
Next thing you will be suggesting a Maoist Communist Party of NZ within our MMP system.
What a great idea! The New Zealand Communist Party, interestingly enough, was Maoist in orientation and one of the few Western communist parties to side with China over the Sino Soviet split. They had a great little newspaper called the Peoples Voice, with Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao on the masthead.
The NZCP however was almost entirely European in membership. Maoism is international and stands well apart from just Chinese culture and civilisation. In fact the active adherents of Maoism are today found in South Asia, Nepal, and Peru (at least up until a few years ago). Marxism Leninism Maoism is a social political system concerned with ownership and control of the means of production, and social justice, and can be adapted to suit local cultural and national environments.
I don’t think Chinese are any more likely to be Maoists than any other type of people. Probably a lot less likely because they have already had a huge does of it and are, for the moment, unlikely to want to return to it – not just because of some of the negative aspects of Maoist China, but also the relentless denigration of this period by China’s current ruling elite. And culturally speaking, Chinese are among the most mercantile people in the world, which is something obviously at odds with Maoism.
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
8. Deny the allegations, Delay the inquiry, Denigrate the accusers.
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
Back to Pansy Wong, who really is a disgusting human being. My feeling is her ambition was to be New Zealand’s first Asian MP, and when she became MP that was enough, not realising she is there to ‘serve the people’
, not to advance her own business interests.
In fact I tried to get some help from her a couple of years ago on behalf of a friend, and apart from a couple of pro-forma emails, she was utterly useless and cared little for the predicament my friend was in. In fact she not only cared little, but cared so little that she did not even bother to feign concern.
As the first Asian MP, she should have held herself to very high standards, even more so than others. Minorities in any country, like it or not, fairly or unfairly, are stigmatised to some extent by the bad actions of their representatives. With this in mind she should have set out to be not just an MP, but a hard working MP of unimpeachable honesty. That she did not do this, and let her greed for a few thousand dollars of air tickets get in the way of this is quite despicable.
Vote:November 28th, 2010 at 10:56 pm
Hands up who read the headline and thought this was going to be about investigatng Chris Carter
Vote:November 29th, 2010 at 7:39 am
Spare us the gory details, Ms. Wong. Resign now!
Vote:November 29th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Manolo
What do you think this is – the UK ?
Since when did NZ MPs resign before they damage the party and bring disrepute on parliament.
Vote:November 29th, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Using “interrogated” is rather emotive. The correct, and more descriptive term, will have been “interviewed”.
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