The official inquiry decided not to blame one specific action or organisation, but the responsibility for delivering clean and healthy water was, by law, that of the Hastings District Council and its long-term leader, Mr Yule.
The next day, MP David Parker made the most of Mr English's misstep and asked Anne Tolley as Minister of Local Government if she agreed with the PM's statement of the day before.
Minister Tolley could hardly disagree with her leader, and tried to shift the argument from responsibility to the immediate blame for the contamination.
David Parker then went to the heart of the issue and asked:
"Does she agree with the inquiry finding that the district council did not implement the high standard of care required of a public drinking-water supplier, particularly in light of its history of a high number of prior E. coli transgressions?"
Minister Tolley agreed and again tried to involve other parties, despite the fact that blame and responsibility for ignoring these alarming E. coli readings was that of the Hastings District Council.
Mr Parker then asked her if she recalled the Cave Creek tragedy of 1995, in which 14 people died when a DoC viewing platform collapsed in the Paparoa National Park.
In this case the local DoC manager and the Department of Conservation chief executive resigned, as did then Minister of Conservation Denis Marshall.
At this point the Speaker intervened, offering Anne Tolley a way out of the trap that Mr Parker was laying, by advancing the issue of ministerial responsibility, allowing her to state that she, indeed, had no ministerial responsibility.
Mr Parker then got to the heart of the matter, asking:
"Does she believe that the mayor of the district council that infected 5500 of its residents with campylobacter, causing premature deaths, Guillain-Barre paralysis, and terribly painful reactive arthritis, amongst other complications, was responsible for the council he has led for more than 15 years?"
It becomes clear that the Speaker won't allow this line of argument and Mr Parker is ultimately ejected from the House.
What we are seeing here is the National Party lining up behind its Tukituki candidate, Lawrence Yule, and you'd have to ask yourself two questions.
First, isn't there a double standard running here?
Todd Barclay, the MP for Clutha-Southland, was pressured by National Party colleagues into announcing his resignation because he taped a former employee who didn't like him, and the employee spilled the beans.
Mr Yule, repeatedly elected to run an outfit which no lesser person than the Prime Minister tells us has responsibility to provide "clean and healthy water", didn't resign and instead decided to run for Parliament.
He then gets support from senior National MPs in Parliament.
Taking responsibility for a mistake or calamity by resigning, as Todd Barclay has done, still happens.
It was the route taken by Nicholas Paget-Brown, the leader of the council that owned the London apartment block which went up in flames last month.
Second, if doing the decent thing is now getting old-fashioned, do we now need legal remedies of the type that exist in the United States?
A water-poisoning episode in the city of Flint, Michigan, has resulted in five people getting charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Only one person was proven to have died as a result of this contamination, but this warrants the charges against a range of officials who, if convicted, risk a prison sentence of 15 years.
In Havelock North, with no resignations and no charges laid, the poisoned people's only comeback is their candidate vote in September.
• Mike Williams grew up in Hawke's Bay. He is CEO of the NZ Howard League and a former Labour Party president. All opinions are his and not those of Hawke's Bay Today.
