By JOHN ARMSTRONG politcal editor
The Prime Minister may fast-forward her mid-year cabinet reshuffle - and Marian Hobbs and Phillida Bunkle are considered most unlikely to get their ministerial jobs back even if they are cleared.
The respective Labour and Alliance MPs yesterday resigned their ministerial warrants after bowing to backroom pressure in the Beehive as the Government finally moved to stem the political damage flowing from the two-month scandal over their housing allowances.
Four of Helen Clark's original 25 ministers - two from inside the cabinet and two from outside - have now been sacked or forced to resign because of personal scandal since the Labour-Alliance Coalition took office 15 months ago.
The latest casualties are now backbenchers, having stood down from their portfolios while inquiries by the Registrar of Electors and the Auditor General are completed. Their salaries drop from $132,000-plus to $85,000, and they lose their ministerial cars.
Despite the double resignations, there is no sense of crisis within Government.
Instead, there is relief that a boil has been lanced, tempered by the spectre of a possible byelection in highly-marginal Wellington Central if Marian Hobbs is found to have breached electoral law.
Both MPs said they were sure they would be shown to have done nothing wrong, but refused to comment further.
Ms Hobbs, who is said to be devastated by her resignation and suffering a crisis of confidence, carried on with her Wellington Central electorate responsibilities yesterday.
Ms Bunkle, a list MP, left Wellington to spend the weekend with friends.
The Prime Minister yesterday said the pair decided to stand down because of the "intolerable pressure" placed on them by the continuing inquiries into whether they should have been on the Wellington Central electoral roll when their homes were deemed to be elsewhere and they claimed out-of-Wellington living allowances.
Helen Clark said that pressure made it impossible for them to do their jobs effectively.
But it is understood Helen Clark and Jim Anderton acted once a Crown Law Office opinion to the Registrar of Electors made it clear there was a prima facie case to answer.
Following lengthy consultation between the coalition leaders, resignation letters were drafted on Wednesday.
An announcement was delayed until yesterday to avoid the Opposition exploiting the resignations in Parliament on Thursday.
Despite a blanket silence imposed on the Beehive, the news came out on Thursday night.
The Prime Minister is refusing to guarantee that Ms Hobbs and Ms Bunkle will be reinstated in their ministerial posts if they are cleared.
Beehive sources said there was no chance of Ms Bunkle returning to the ministry, as her political credibility had been destroyed by her repeated insistence that she was entitled to a taxpayer-funded, out-of-Wellington allowance when she was also telling voters she was living in Wellington.
If cleared, Marian Hobbs' chances are rated as marginally higher. But she will not get the prized broadcasting portfolio back, as she has struggled in that role.
The job is likely to go to Steve Maharey, who has temporary custody of the portfolio and who was Labour's broadcasting spokesman in the 1990s.
Sources said Helen Clark had been planning a reshuffle mid-year, leaving open the possibility of Ruth Dyson returning to the ministry once her six-month disqualification for a drink-driving offence expires in June.
But the Prime Minister will have to contemplate an earlier reshuffle as Ms Hobbs and Ms Bunkle also held the biosecurity, environment, consumer affairs and customs portfolios.
That all hinges on the completion of the two inquiries which are still some weeks away.
Last month, a Parliamentary Services and Higher Salaries Commission report cleared Ms Hobbs and Ms Bunkle of any wrong-doing in claiming the allowance before the 1999 election.
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