The Press advises Key and Mallard

The Press has advice for John Key and Trevor Mallard on their respective “stuff-ups”:

If one of the fundamental lessons of life is to learn from one’s mistakes, a couple of Parliament’s higher-profile personalities should be starting the new week with newfound wisdom to guide them through the corridors of power, writes The Press in an editorial.

Key comes out of the DVD fiasco looking as if he would struggle to run a bath, never mind a focused, confidence-inspiring administration. But if he can comfort himself that he has been the victim of others’ failings, Trevor Mallard has no such excuse.

… His environment ministry is immersed in crisis, if not scandal, over the recruitment of communications staff, with clear signs of political interference by at least two of Mallard’s colleagues. Mallard’s initial response was to monster a whistle-blower caught up in the rather tacky business, destroying her professional reputation with a broadside delivered under parliamentary privilege.

That it has emerged last week that he based the attack on incorrect advice from his ministry seems to mean little to Mallard. He has dug himself in, refusing to apologise for what can only be seen now as a reprehensible display.

Mallard will surely know that no matter who he wants to blame for his unwarranted attack, the ultimate responsibility lies with him. But perhaps he is more an example of another interpretation of that basic lesson from life: that those who don’t learn from their mistakes tend to repeat them.

Indeed it is all about learning from mistakes.