This may be the start of a pattern. First there was David Garrett, list MP for ACT and former legal adviser to the Sensible Sentencing Trust who stole the identity of a dead baby admittedly years ago, was then convicted of assault in Tonga and lied about it so that he could receive a discharge without conviction.
As said by Eddie at the time:
There’s no passing this off as youthful indiscretions and skeletons in closets. It wasn’t Garrett’s “foolish actions 26 years ago” that sealed his fate, it was the confirmation that even to this day he is still a liar, a criminal and the worst kind of hypocrite.
And the disclosure or the failure to do so ended Rodney Hide’s tenure as leader of ACT.
At least the governing board of ACT had the excuse that they did not know of Garrett’s indiscretions because they were never told, even though Hide knew.
Fast forward to today and another right wing candidate is having difficulties because in the past he also stole the identity of a dead baby.
From the Herald:
A man standing for office in the upcoming local elections stole the identities of dead babies to obtain fraudulent passports.
Savea Peseta Al Harrington Lavea – who is standing on a ticket to make the community “safe and prosperous” – was convicted along with his younger brother Romney Lavea of stealing the identities of seven dead children in 2008. The pair admitted seven charges of forgery and another seven of using a forged document, relating to offences that stretched back to the late 1990s. Lavea, then a community advisor in Papatoetoe, was sentenced to six months’ home detention and ordered to pay $5000 for reparation for emotional harm.
Now he is standing as candidate on the Auckland Future ticket for a seat on the Whau Local Board.
His indiscretion was well known amongst the Samoan community. This was the suboptimal vetting that I referred to yesterday. But this did not stop him from trying to deny what had happened. Again from the Herald:
But when asked if he was the same person convicted of stealing a dead child’s identity he said: “Ah no, no I don’t think so. What are you talking about?” He then hung up. A man answering the phone in later calls said he was not Lavea.
It appears that he had disclosed his conviction to the selection panel and they had decided to give him a chance. Fair enough. Mercy and redemption are important human characteristics. But the first rule should be to own up to it when asked about it publicly.
And you have to ask didn’t they have candidates with less problematic backgrounds?
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