A godsend for Helen

The news today that Taito Philip Field is refusing to co-operate with the Police inquiry into his actions is potentially a godsend for Helen Clark.

I shouldn’t give advice which will only help Labour, but I would rather for the sake of the NZ Parliament, the PM does the right thing.

While any person who is being investigated by the Police has the right not to co-operate, it is incompatible with being an MP and lawmaker, to exercise this right and retain their party’s support. You can be an uncooperative defendant or you can be an MP, not both.

So Helen has a wonderful opportunity. She needs to bury the Field issue but needed an excuse to take action now where she has stonewalled in the past. This is it.

On Monday morning she should front up to her weekly press conference and say “Tomorrow at Caucus I will be moving a motion to expel Taito Philip Field as a Labour MP. I expect the support of Caucus for this. It is unacceptable to my party and government that an MP refuses to co-operate with a Police inquiry into serious charges relating to his conduct as an MP”.

If Helen does this, she will gain praise from her party members, the unions, the media and the public. It will defuse one of the few “nasty” issues unresolved from 2006.

I should hope that she doesn’t do it, and she lets the stench linger longer. But to be honest some things are more important than politics, and this is one of them. She should be bold and do what is right. Field has provided her with the perfect ammunition to use against him.