You never have to say sorry if you’re Green!

The Herald reports:

The Green Party is refusing to apologise after one of its MPs made a false claim about a National MP in the House, with a clip of the comment racking up more than one million views. 

National’s Northland MP Grant McCallum is requesting an apology from Green MP Tamatha Paul after she incorrectly claimed he had bought a house in Wellington to take advantage of an accommodation allowance given to MPs. …

“Let’s talk about the National and New Zealand First MPs” Paul said. “Including Grant McCallum, who bought a house in Wellington, so they can pay themselves the accommodation allowance while taxpayers pay their mortgage off.” 

Clips of the speech were posted by Paul to TikTok and Instagram, with the former version attracting more than one million views. 

McCallum corrected the record in the House, denying he had purchased a property in Wellington and was paying it off with the accommodation allowance. …

“I did buy another home in Paihia. The reason is simple. It was so I had somewhere to stay when I was working in the mid and far north of my electorate. I do not rent it out,” the post said. 

He said his own investment in the property saved taxpayers money because he didn’t need to stay in motels when he travelled to the Far North.

How hard is it to just apologise and say you got it wrong? Her false statement has been seen by one million people and she doesn’t even have the decency to say sorry for it.

Incidentally Paul lives in an electorate which takes around 20 minutes to cross, and is a tiny 144 sq kms. McCallum’s electorate is almost 100 times larger at 11,300 sq kms and can take six hours to cross.

UPDATE: Paul didn’t just get it wrong about one MP, but at least four MPs, yet still won’t apologise.