Editorial: Sorry, but can Aucklanders still trust Hide?

This is the age of the public apology. No lapse of judgment is so serious, or so trite, that it cannot be the subject of ritual remorse. At the weekend Rodney Hide did it, Hone Harawira sort of did it, even Dan Carter did it. What is the public supposed to do with these admissions?

Each of the three illustrates a different species of the modern apology. Mr Hide's was the abject act of the genuinely chastened, Mr Harawira's the grudging minimal concession of somebody who is not sorry at all, Dan Carter's the needless apology for a harmless slip that would have gone without comment in front of any other crowd.

But if Mr Hide's was the most genuine, it is also the hardest to accept. His lapses of judgment in charging his girlfriend's travel costs to the taxpayer remain hardly less disturbing now that he has acknowledged his folly. These were not momentary errors, like a hot-headed email or a high tackle in a rugby test, they were airline bookings charged to the parliamentary expenses of a politician who had made "perk-busting" his first mission in public life.

He booked these tickets in the knowledge that the expenses are now disclosed, and in the belief that he could justify them. Last week, when he was persisting in this belief, he said, "I didn't go into this [round-the-world] trip lightly. I thought long and hard about it and knew I would have to justify it. I hope that people will look at my job as MP and minister and say, 'Actually, that guy did a good job and he was good value for money overall'."

Possibly last week there were people who admired the work he has done so far as Minister of Local Government and were prepared to dismiss the travel perk as a minor embarrassment. Not everyone rated his early perk-busting as particularly important, including Act's founder, Sir Roger Douglas, who made known his disappointment at the populist politics the party was practising at that time.

But if some were willing to excuse the jaunts of Mr Hide's partner on the taxpayer, what are they supposed to think now? His heavily expressed apology has elevated the lapse to a serious wrong. He blamed it on "the challenge, the hard work and the excitement" of his ministerial responsibilities, explaining that he had lost sight of the fact that every dollar the Government spent came out of a New Zealander's pocket.

Those are fairly serious admissions for someone entrusted with a ministerial portfolio, no matter how minor the error that prompted them. They raise an obvious question: Have the challenge, hard work and excitement interfered with Mr Hide's judgment on this subject alone?

He is a minister toiling outside the Cabinet on one large task in particular. The reconstitution of Auckland's local government is predominantly in his hands. By his own careless admission last week, he finds Cabinet ministers too busy to take much notice of what he takes to them.

He more than anyone right now is deciding this city's future. It is a task that requires fine legislative balancing of local and metropolitan interests, elective and appointive powers, ratepayers' rights and communities' cohesion. It requires a minister of reliable judgment.

An apology cannot change what has happened; it can even inflate its importance. It can also undermine confidence in the penitent. Which Mr Hide is in public office, the cavalier hypocrite of last week or the sorrowful soul of Sunday? And was it real remorse or just the pragmatism promoted by the Prime Minister when he reminds ministers to do the right thing because they will be found out.

"Sorry" is not always the hardest word. Sometimes in public life these days it sounds too easy.