Better to oust censured MP

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

How many of you knew that National Party MP Tim van de Molen was censured by the multi-party parliamentary privileges committee for threatening a Labour MP? He is the first MP to have been censured since Winston Peters in 2008, even though several have been referred to the committee. This indicates that the committee is treating the incident in question very seriously.

Van de Molen stood over the chair of the committee, Labour’s Shanan Halbert, prevented him from carrying out his duties and obstructed and blocked him from leaving.

Although his National Party leader Christopher Luxon knew about the inquiry for weeks he chose not to apply the same rules to his MP as he does to all of the other MPs he has insisted be sacked.

Most media chose not to tell us about the inquiry, which is surprising given their enthusiasm when reporting about perceived yelling and screaming by Labour or Green MPs. Newshub has labelled Luxon a hypocrite as a result of his inaction. 1News hasn’t reported the censure on their TV news items at all.

Luxon has advised that van de Molen will not have a ministerial position, if we end up with a National Party government, but he won’t sack him.

It’s disappointing that we will end up with a back bencher without prospects keeping a seat warm in Parliament at a huge cost to the taxpayers. Surely it’s better to oust van de Molen now before the election, so voters can have a more productive MP in his place without wasting money on a by-election. It seems we have two sets of values once again.

Mary-Ann de Kort