Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, February 25th, 2010 - 111 comments
Categories: inoculation -
Tags: gerry brownlee, phil heatley
Stuff is reporting Heatley’s resignation has come because two bottles of wine were accidentally listed as food and beverage rather than simply beverage.
I don’t buy that. Not at all.
The idea that a minister would resign (or be pushed) for so little is absurd. In fact it’s not just absurd, it sets a threshold many of National’s ministers would struggle to meet (I’m looking at you Gerry).
Add to that the fact John Key dropped everything to rush back to Wellington (which was likely to cost the taxpayer far more than an average bottle of wine) and the whole thing starts to look very fishy.
Either this is an attempt to cauterise the issue before bigger much more concerning spending issues come out or Key is hoping that by losing a disposable minister like Heatley he will gain some PR credibility for his “steel” and “decisiveness” and the media will stop looking at other ministers who are slightly less disposable.
Whichever way you look at it, there’s more to this story than we’re being told.
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Scoopit!
You are involved in the housing expenses claim “rort”, you charge taxpayers for a holiday, you charge Ministerial services for wine and then declare this falsely – and you want to be seen as someone having standards. So you have a couple of weeks off.
Your colleagues try to persuade you otherwise, possibly concerned at setting a lower theshold than they were comfortable with – but if it works to restore your reputation so you can make a fresh start in the job, stuff ‘m.