96 days to go ….

Labour have only 96 days to pay back their $800,000 of illegal (until validated) taxpayer expenditure. When will it be paid? And remember we want to see the receipt.

But more to the point when will NZ First make a decision? This is not a complex issue. They have just three options:

(1) pay it back
(2) refuse to pay it back
(3) take court action over the Auditor-General’s report

NZ First had their long awaited legal advice on 20 February, five weeks ago. A slightly retarded used car salesman could even manage to make a decision in that timeframe.

The Auditor-General released his final report on Wednesday 11 October 2006. 166 days has passed since then. Or 3,984 hours. Or 239,040 minutes. However one counts it, that has been bucketloads of time.

If I was a newspaper journalist I would be running a story every Tuesday about NZ First’s refusal to say what they will do, and their silly delaying tactics. The media need to make the cost of not saying so high that they finally do commit to paying it back or alternatively confirming they won’t pay it back (which will mean they are wiped out at the next election).