One law for all?

Written By: - Date published: 10:44 am, October 15th, 2009 - 10 comments
Categories: corruption, crime, national/act government - Tags:

Over on g.blog, toad has noticed something:

If you or I steal money, it is theft. We get taken to court, and get fined or go to prison.

Interesting! As Double Dipton would say, it’s all about perception.

And what would they call it if you or I sought confidential information from one company on trust, then passed it to a competitor?

10 comments on “One law for all? ”

  1. Ianmac 1

    But lets be fair Toad. MPs are classed as white collar workers and the rules are very different for them. Think Fay Ritchwhite.

  2. the sprout 2

    ah, yeah… i think Bill calls that “slimming-down and streamlining the process”

  3. Craig Glen Eden 3

    I think its the Robin Hood principle that they are trying to hold onto. You now if I am stealing for the good of someone else then its ok. Only difference is Double Diptons family are not poor and nor are they starving. We have to give him credit though………… he does like to pay his cleaner well!

    As for Westpac please give me a break, the directors should go to jail.

    I wonder if Double Dipton went to jail would he request the closet jail to Dipton as thats his family home or Wellington. Just a thought.

    • toad 3.1

      Craig GE, there’s no evidence Double Dipton’s cleaner gets paid $20 an hour himself or herself.

      My bet is that the $20 an hour probably goes to a contractor like Spotless Services, and the actual cleaner is paid something like $14.62 an hour, like those at the MidCentral District Health Board who will take to the street tomorrow to protest against their zero increase pay offer.

  4. Herodotus 4

    You forgot to include what it is called when a party does the same thing.
    And did we get evidence that NZ1 has done the moral thing?

  5. Gosman 5

    You missed one – When the State does it it is called Taxes.

  6. Gosman 6

    Turning Marxist theory on it’s head – When the workers do it it’s called a ‘loss’

  7. Rex Widerstrom 7

    I’m gonna save a comment to this effect on my clipboard, such is the frequency with shich MPs are found up to their elbows in excrement 😀

    A well-drafted Bill exists which, amongst other initiatives, establishes a Parliamentary Standards Commissioner based on the old (tough) UK model. There’s a raft of other reforms in it as well, all aimed at greater transparency and accountability.

    It was conceived by myself and Gilbert Myles, the latter paying some very good lawyers to do the actual drafting. I’d imagine he – or someone – still has it somewhere (NZF MPs refused to allow it to be placed in the ballot).

    I can’t speak for him but if any party wants to dig it out and put it forward, I’d be happy with that. I’d even do what I could to help them promote it.