Horan has no mandate
December 12th, 2012 at 9:00 am by David FarrarStuff reports:
Former NZ First MP Brendan Horan says he will stand for Parliament in 2014 and in the meantime will remain to “work for taxpayers [and] all New Zealanders”.
NZ First severed its final links with Mr Horan on Monday night after confirming that his membership had lapsed once he informed Parliament’s Speaker Lockwood Smith that he was remaining in Parliament as an independent.
Mr Horan was expelled from the NZ First caucus after leader Winston Peters said he had lost confidence in him. He had received “substantive” information after allegations about money from Mr Horan’s late mother’s estate.
Mr Horan, who continues to receive his backbencher salary of $141,000 plus an expense allowance, told Radio New Zealand he had a mandate to remain in Parliament and represent the people of Tauranga, who voted for him.
He got 12.88 per cent of the vote in Tauranga, third behind National’s Simon Bridges on 61.4 per cent of the vote.
Horan has no mandate to represent those 4,611 people who voted for him. He lost. He came third. He became an MP not because of those 4,611 votes for him, but because NZ First placed him on their list and they got 147,544 votes.
Lots of people got 4,611 votes or more in the electorate vote and are not MPs. James Shaw the Green candidate in Wellington Central got 5,225. Paul Foster-Bell got 12,460. By Horan’s logic they have more of a mandate than him.
Mr Horan said details would be released this week discounting allegations that he took money from his late mother’s estate.
That will be very interesting.
December 12th, 2012 at 9:05 am
Yes, he should resign.
Vote:But since he is now such a thorn in Winston side, I think that money is still better spent on Horan than on whoever is next on the list at Winston First.
December 12th, 2012 at 9:07 am
Many years ago I recall a disgraced M.P. standing as an Independent at the following election.
Vote:I think it was John Kirk.
The reason was that in those days a defeated parliamentarian got a higher retirement package than a retiring parliamentarian.
Can any knowledgable person point out today’s facts.
December 12th, 2012 at 9:15 am
As Horan’s self-serving attitude is almost identical to that of Labour’s MP’s, he’ll probably join them.
Vote:December 12th, 2012 at 9:17 am
No mandate, but a good source of income to keep ringing the TAB line.
Vote:Horan is a trougher as his many colleagues.
December 12th, 2012 at 9:30 am
“The reason was that in those days a defeated parliamentarian got a higher retirement package than a retiring parliamentarian.”
If he stands again I believe he is entitled to be paid for three months after the election, which those retiring do not get.
As an aside, if you are correct that he is claiming a mandate based on getting 4,611 votes in Tauranga (I haven’t seen him do that directly, rather just using it as an example of his popularity), then what does he say to fellow Tauranga candidate Deborah Mahuta-Coyle?
MAHUTA-COYLE, Deborah LAB 4,707
Vote:December 12th, 2012 at 9:32 am
No argument here at all. I’ve long thought that the Electoral Integrity Act 2000 was a damned good idea and should have had its existence extended.
Vote:December 12th, 2012 at 9:55 am
If people didn’t want Brendan Horan elected, they shouldn’t have voted for the NZ First list. If people didn’t want this form of MMP, they should have voted against it in the referendum.
Since they did the opposite, against all reason and good advice, Mr Horan has a perfectly justifiable mandate to remain in Parliament for his full term. He is not a trougher, he is our elected representative, and entitled to finish the job assigned to him.
Had there been clear evidence of criminal activity, I might think differently. But all I see is evidence of a civil dispute, and not even concrete evidence of that from what has been made public. He should remain an MP to remind the idiots of what they voted for last year when they had the chance to do away with list MPs.
Vote:December 12th, 2012 at 10:01 am
I agree. Irrespective of whether or not Peters was right to kick him out, the fact is that he has done so and Horan knew he was getting himself into a personality cult when he joined NZ First. He should quit, then cane Peters from outside the House (if, in fact, he hasn’t done anything wrong).
Vote:December 12th, 2012 at 10:14 am
Horan is a maori.
and he is carry-on exactly the same as many maori before him have carried on.
ie: whats your is mine. If I can take it then Ill have it. There is no morality involved. I have done nothing wrong.
Vote:December 12th, 2012 at 10:41 am
Well, this is what you get when you opt for an electoral system as dead-headed as MMP.
I’ve no expectation that the NZ electorate will come to its senses any time soon and ditch this hopeless, indeed laughable, electoral system.
Us and the Germans! Great company, eh?
Vote:December 12th, 2012 at 10:44 am
David, your argument is flawed.
Peters was not aiming for an electorate , he was aiming for five percent party vote and he put in a B grade TV star in the hope that the large slice of New Zealand’s population which is dumb enough to vote for a dick who spruiks the weather from an auto-cue would vote for NZ First.
And they did.
Do you recall the margin by which Peters gained entry to parliament?
Deduct from that the 10,000 or so votes from Horan’s far flung whanau and fan club and you might see a very different picture.
Wouldn’t surprise me if Horan’s party vote got Peters over the line.
Vote:December 12th, 2012 at 10:48 am
Blame the Great Helmsman, Potato Head Bolger, for the monstrosity MMP is.
Vote:December 12th, 2012 at 12:35 pm
Horan does have a mandate, he was voted in by over 147,000 voters who voted for NZ First in the knowledge that he was on their list.
Vote:To suggest that one person Winston, a well known liar and thief should override the voters and have him removed is stupid.
December 12th, 2012 at 1:18 pm
Shows up the stupidity of MMP, and the other cheating lying Maori Winston Peters.
Vote:Pair well suited.
December 12th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
He has no mandate and should go.
When I lost the support of Hide, there were those who urged me to stay based on the “mandate” from however many SST supporters had voted ACT because I was on its list. There is no question there were a significant number who would never have voted ACT otherwise.
At first blush, the argument had some logic to it. After a few days reflection however, it was quite clear that I had no right to stay here having been elected as part of an ACT team. Looked at through that prism, and in the light of the votes he got in Tauranga, Horan has even less “mandate” to stay on as an independent than I did.
He should go, but he will take the pay over the holidays instead. Whatever he might have done, I am glad the media jackals seem to have left his family alone.
Vote:December 12th, 2012 at 3:58 pm
He will stroke out when he reads Truth tomorrow. He has bigger problems than looting his mums purse.
Vote:David, his family are the ones who have thrown him under the bus. They have been talking to media for weeks.
Tomorrows Truth front page is dynamite.
December 12th, 2012 at 4:27 pm
Ah…so that’s what pushed my story off the front page!
The “inside story” on the Couch settlement is “inside” the paper…sounds like a good read tommorro…
And by “family” I mean his kids Bill…whatever he might have done they are innocent collateral damage..
Vote:December 12th, 2012 at 5:22 pm
I doubt NZ First voters in Invercargill (for example) voted for that party because of a cheesy wacky weatherman campaigning in Tauranga.
Vote:NZ First is the Winston Peters party.
December 12th, 2012 at 7:26 pm
Using the term mandate in relation to any List MP is a nonsense. The majority either opted not to subject themselves to the judgement of an electorate at all, knowing they would be repudiated, or stood in an electorate and lost.
If voters could, if they wished, rank the list of the party to whom they were giving their party vote at the same time as they were voting (an “open list”) then list MPs would have some claim to a mandate. However NZ in its wisdom did not opt to impose democracy on the internal workings of political parties.
Instead, list MPs owe their ranking to a small number of people – in NZ First, perhaps as little as one and certainly no more than half a dozen – and thus by no stretch of the imagination have a mandate.
As DPF and other commenters have said Mr Horan’s “mandate” comes not from the 4,611 people voted for him to be an electorate MP – he lost that contest. Instead it comes from the significantly smaller number who decided his list ranking. But so does every other list MP’s. It’s when the one, two or half a dozen power brokers responsible for their holding high office turn against them that the undemocratic nature of NZ’s form of MMP becomes apparent.
Vote:December 12th, 2012 at 7:36 pm
This should just about finish him off then.
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2012/12/truth-out-tomorrow-youll-want-a-copy-of-this-one/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WhaleOilBeefHookedGotcha+%28Whale+Oil+Beef+Hooked%29
Vote: