ODT on Clark

The ODT editorial today starts off on John Key and Tranz Rail but really focuses on Clark.

The New Zealand First leader’s lawyer, Brian Henry, told the privileges committee he personally paid $40,000 in court costs awarded against Mr Peters to National MP Bob Clarkson.

Mr Peters then told the committee that he repaid his lawyer, which meant he did not have to declare the sum under Parliament’s rules.

However, in evidence to the committee, the Serious Fraud Office said its investigations showed Mr Peters did not repay the money; the Spencer Trust, through which NZ First’s donations were channelled, did so.

Miss Clark’s response to this, when questioned by journalists, was that she did not intend to waste any more time on the matter.

Rock solid proof that Peters lied to both the public and the privileges committee. And all Clark can say is she had not bothered to read the report and doing so would be a waste of time.

“Our mission,” declared Helen Clark when opening her successful 1999 election campaign, “is to clean up government, and to clean up Parliament . . . the public’s faith in the democratic process must be restored.”

That is a pledge which voters should now measure, nine years later, and judge it to have been a spectacular failure.

Yes, a spectacular failure. The abandonment of any standards of honesty for her administration is spectacular.