And the winner is…

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, November 11th, 2009 - 17 comments
Categories: bill english, corruption, national/act government - Tags: ,

grabbies smallThere were only really two ministers in the race for the first Grabby.

Rodney Hide betrayed his own supposed principles by using his MP’s travel allowance to fly his girlfriend overseas. He also, with John Key’s consent, used that allowance to bypass Key’s ban on ministers taking their partners flying overseas with taxpayer money. Of course, that was a standard set by Key, not a legal rule. By breaching it, Hide showed himself to be a hypocrite and Key to be weak but that’s a political issue, not a legal one.

Hide has also breached the Cabinet Manual at least twice. His ‘breakfast-gate’ speech (where he told attendees that Key “doesn’t do anything”) purported to be a ministerial speech but was also an ACT fundraiser. He also endorsed a business of which he had been a client.

However, this doesn’t quite get Hide to the level of Bill English. Here was the Deputy Prime Minister, the Finance Minister, changing his personal financial circumstances to take an allowance which was not intended for ministers, like him, who are based in Wellington. The Auditor-General found English was not entitled to the allowance but that he had acted on bad advice. That has always seemed like a very charitable view. English altered the ownership of his family home with the express purpose of claiming nearly $50,000 a year from the taxpayer.

Because of the scale of the rort, because of the fact that English was never entitled to the allowance, because of the intent behind his actions, because of his appalling use of his family as a human sheild for his rorting, because of English’s seniority, and because of the utter hypocrisy of the Minister of Finance who was telling the rest of us to take pay cuts at the same time as he was ripping us over for as much as possible, Bill English is the winner of the first Grabby.

Congratulations, to the people who exposed him.

17 comments on “And the winner is… ”

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  1. BLiP 1
    11 November 2009 at 1:30 pm

    It shouldn’t be forgotten that while Blinglish certainly rorted the tax payers while telling us all to tighten our belts, its was Mogadon John that signed it off.

  2. Pat 2
    11 November 2009 at 2:08 pm

    “Imma let you finish, but I just wanna say Taito’s corrupshon was the best one ever!”

    • Chris 2.1
      11 November 2009 at 3:04 pm

      Imma let yo finish but I jes wanna say dem white fellas did it biggar and betta than Taito!

    • Homo Domesticus 2.2
      11 November 2009 at 4:25 pm

      All corruption is bad and no one is above the law but I believe English and Hide have done far worse than Field. Both should be sacked for sheer hypocrisy alone. English claimed money he is not entitled to. English’s primary address is Wellington not Dipton. He lives there as does his family. His excuse of wanting to keep his family together has no relevance. Thousands of kiwis commute to other parts of the country or abroad to work without their spouses and families.

      English is corrupt and should not be in parliament. He has stolen public money for years. He must pay the money back and then either resign or be sacked.

      Hide has lost all credibility and should also go.

      Homo d.

      • gitmo 2.2.1
        11 November 2009 at 4:29 pm

        “All corruption is bad and no one is above the law but I believe English and Hide have done far worse than Field.”

        Oh dear more delusion.

      • Herodotus 2.2.2
        11 November 2009 at 4:32 pm

        If we sacked everyone who under your narrow terms of hypocisy we would only achieve one thing a parliamnet totalling Nil.

  3. randal 3
    11 November 2009 at 2:21 pm

    what was really annoying was that both of these men put up some petty little personal problems and expected everybody to empathise with their problems.
    teeth.
    hair.
    my children dont like me etc.
    they extended their pseudopods and tried to enfold the whole population in their glutinous smothering embrace.
    I was nearly sick to tell the troof.
    these things are beyond belief in their self centred assertion that they are the centre of the world as we know it and only they have problems of this nature.
    I suppose they clutch their pillows at night and call upon judy bailley (mother of the nation) to save them.

  4. Craig Glen Eden 4
    11 November 2009 at 2:28 pm

    No Pat English has to be the winner as he actively tried to rort the system assisted by the PMs orrifice. As we all know when most of the evidence against Taito came out he was cut loose by Prime Minister Clarke, he was subsequently charged ( and rightly so in my view and found by a court to be guilty) then thrown out of the Labour Party. Clarke never signed off on Taito’s activities, nor was she relaxed about it. Unlike Sir Double Diptons shameful activities.

    • Geek 4.1
      11 November 2009 at 2:30 pm

      Well done on missing the humorous reference to Kanye West’s interruption at the Grammy’s.

    • burt 4.2
      11 November 2009 at 8:53 pm

      <history_re_write>As we all know when most of the evidence against Taito came out he was cut loose by Prime Minister Clarke</history_re_write>

  5. Homo Domesticus 5
    11 November 2009 at 4:15 pm

    Friends it is time for a change, time for a new party to rise. Our present politicians cannot be trusted. Most of the present National cabinet are adherents of tried and failed ideologies and are there to enrich themselves and their cronies.

    Parliament is in trouble. Field, Peters, Worth have shamed parliament. English, Hide and Harawera have blatantly misused parliamentary privileges to enrich themselves. The latter trio must join Field and co and be sacked from parliament.

    Cant Bill English is corrupt. He must resign now or be tried for corruption. Rise citizens and oust the bludger English.

    Homo d.

  7. kiwiteen123 7
    11 November 2009 at 10:02 pm

    Just ignore the facts… Your case would be nothing if you included them.

    • Jeremy 7.1
      17 November 2009 at 6:07 pm

      By “facts” do you mean your belief that Rodney Hyde and Bill English are not corrupt? Sorry but your definition of “facts” is looking rather like my definition of “delusion”