Health Minister David Clark took his family for a long drive on day three of the lockdown. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Health Minister David Clark took his family for a long drive on day three of the lockdown. Photo / Mark Mitchell
COMMENT:
There's an unwritten rule in politics that families are sacrosanct, that they should never be brought into political debate.
Some ministers - let's face it one minister - seem to have interpreted that as meaning that anything involving families is sacrosanct, that when it comes to families, the rulesdon't apply.
How else could the Health Minister David Clark lose his judgment to such an extent during a health crisis as to drive his family 20km to a beach for a walk on day three of New Zealand's lockdown when the key message to idiots testing the guidelines was to "stay local"?
Ardern did the right thing in rejecting his offer to resign. Despite his appalling lack of judgment, his departure would be too disruptive at this point in the Covid-19 health crisis to accept it.
He survives for now, but only temporarily until things return to something resembling normal.
He has lost the credibility of the public and the trust of the Prime Minister.
This is the most child-friendly Government and Parliament in New Zealand's history.
The Prime Minister and ministers have taken parental leave, babies are welcomed into the debating chamber, and children are welcomed into the new playground on the front lawn - except during lockdown.
But that doesn't mean losing all sense when it comes to family.
David Clark has been criticised before over a matter of judgment involving his family - for leaving his post just before the first nurses' strike in decades to accompany them on a holiday to Australia.
His trip lasted 33 hours and he returned promptly to New Zealand. There was not universal criticism at that judgment. It was a grey area.
Nor was there universal criticism of Clark driving just over 2km from his Dunedin home to a mountain bike trail last week.
It seemed to fall into the grey area of rules of lockdown because it was fairly local and there was debate about how dangerous the track was.
But the 20km drive to Doctor's Point is in a different league altogether.
If he had been staying across his job while spending the lockdown in Dunedin he would have been in no doubt about the messaging his colleagues were giving to the public.
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Either he hasn't tuned into the key messages, or he ignored them.
Arrogance is not a word you would normally associate with David Clark but it is hard to go past it if ignorance was not behind the drive.
He is one of the most pleasant MPs in Parliament since arriving as Dunedin North MP in 2011.
He has a PhD in theology, is a Presbyterian minister, and a former warden at Selwyn College in Dunedin.
He is a gentle, kind soul and, until recently, a thoughtful person.
To call him a thoughtless idiot would be charitable.
