John Armstrong: Labour resists temptation to fling mud too

Despite the almost overwhelming temptation to fling some mud of its own at National and Act yesterday, the Labour Party wisely chose to show self-restraint.


Whatever "dirt file" Labour may possess on various Opposition MPs was kept locked firmly away in its bottom drawer.


While Labour's latest casualty was flying home to Dunedin to get out of the spotlight, all that was missing were the dark veils and black ties as David Benson-Pope's colleagues trekked into their weekly caucus meeting, their grim looks attesting to collective mourning for the fallen minister.


The forced stand-down from the Cabinet of the Associate Education Minister while an independent investigation determines whether the former teacher bullied and assaulted pupils is yet another embarrassment that Labour does not need.


Unlike other recent embarrassments, however, this one appears to have been strangely unifying for being brought on by Labour's opponents, rather than Labour's own bungling.


An outburst from Dover Samuels on his way into the morning caucus suggested the air would be thick with talk of vendetta. It looked like it would be open slather and open slaughter when Parliament met in the afternoon. But revenge was not to be.


Labour's tacticians rejected the option of responding in kind to Act's Rodney Hide and National's Judith Collins, who first raised the allegations of bullying and assault during Parliament's question-time last Thursday.


Labour would have been on weak ground doing so.


Mr Hide and Mrs Collins may have risked Armageddon by nearly provoking Parliament's equivalent of nuclear war - a scenario where a string of allegations of personal impropriety from one side of the House is matched by a deluge of the same from the other to everyone's mutually-assured destruction. But former pupils have since come forward to back up the Opposition MPs' claims, justifying their making the accusations even if their motives were political.


Unless the inquiry's findings are utterly conclusive that there were no assaults, it is difficult to see how Mr Benson-Pope can return to the Cabinet, let alone the education portfolio.


However, neither his struggle to save his ministerial career nor Labour's wider fortunes would be helped by the party - as one MP put it - "climbing into the gutter" to engage with National and Act.


There is considerable public sympathy for Mr Benson-Pope's plight. Other former pupils have rushed to his defence.


But things are finely balanced. Labour must avoid doing anything rash that tips sentiment against him and makes it even more difficult to reinstate him.


All this may explain why Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen - standing in for an absent Helen Clark - was by his standards almost turning the other cheek when the matter surfaced in Parliament yesterday afternoon. Almost.


He chided Mr Hide for the "reprehensible practice" of using parliamentary questions to leave unfounded allegations against MPs hanging in the air.


Then came the warning. Any number of members risked being victims of that practice - "not least the member himself".


Dr Cullen then noted he too had been the recipient of allegations concerning a number of MPs in relation to a range of issues "of which I take no notice at all".


His reply may have been measured. But his message was blunt. He could take notice.


When it comes to personal misconduct by opponents, Labour has its own stockpile of allegations. And it still reserves the right to fire them.