Editorial: MPs' past - how far back should we go

Transport Minister Steven Joyce / Brett Phibbs

Shake a tree and it is amazing what comes tumbling down. Transport Minister Steven Joyce followed David Garrett this week in confessing to court convictions.

And if the now-former Act MP's admission of an assault charge and of stealing a dead baby's identity to obtain a false passport was odd for a man who took the hardest of lines on law and order, Mr Joyce's was hardly less surprising.

It transpired the minister responsible for making our roads safer has two convictions for careless driving, one of which caused injury, as well as a number of speeding fines.

This raises obvious questions. How far back and how serious must an offence be to bar a politician from taking a position of responsibility? Should, for example, a struck-off lawyer automatically be excluded from becoming Attorney-General? When, if ever, does an offence become an irrelevance?

The clean-slate law wipes minor convictions if a person has not reoffended for 10 years and if the offence was not one that attracted a custodial sentence.

Mr Garrett's identity theft occurred 26 years ago, yet it ended his political career. Mr Joyce's confession will not. His convictions also came a long time ago, in 1988 and 1989. But, unlike Mr Garrett's, his record is, otherwise, unblemished.

Obviously, there is no precise measure dictating what in a politician's past precludes him or her from office. That is just as well. If the bar is seen as too high, many good men and women will not feel inclined to stand for Parliament.