KEY POINTS:
Don Brash bows out of political life on February 5. While the former National leader fights on to clear his name from claims in Nicky Hager's book, the electoral spending rort that fuelled Labour's return to power has been legitimised by parliamentary legislation and the Government maintains its knife-edge hold on power with MP Taito Phillip Field's vote.
Absurdly enough, the Labour MP - who commands an impressive majority in his Mangere seat - was sent home mid-year on "leave from Parliament" and allowed to stay there on full pay while police investigate a raft of criminal allegations against him over the Thai tiler affair.
Hardly seems fair, does it? One politician is brought down by what National is increasingly starting to believe is an outright criminal conspiracy which began before the 2005 election, and the other is sheltered by political masters who need his vote to maintain their role as the largest political party in Parliament.
But astonishingly, Labour has hardly been challenged by the news media or its political opponents over this rort.
How is it credible that an MP, who is not considered fit enough either emotionally or politically by his political masters to front up to Parliament each day, can continue to draw a $100,000-plus salary?
When will Labour's rising stars, who include some impressive newcomers, put pressure on Helen Clark to put an end to this Beehive gerrymander and either get Field to front up again in Parliament or do the obvious and step down altogether and hold a byelection to elect a new MP who will do battle on behalf of his/her constituents?
It's just too cynical for words to maintain this fraud on the electorate because the ruling party worries that Field might jump ship or become an independent MP if they try to force him out - as should have happened after a QC's initial inquiry disclosed rather sharp practices towards vulnerable immigrants by an MP who at the time held a ministerial warrant.
Brash will continue to dominate headlines as police intensify investigations into the alleged criminal conspiracy surrounding the copying of his emails and diaries and other communications to and from his inner sanctum and National Party HQ, which provided fodder for Hager's The Hollow Men.
Detective Inspector Harry Quinn is again in the hot seat directing inquiries.
Quinn - as followers of the Great Parliamentary Spending Raid know - had his credibility blown after he refused to throw the book at the Prime Minister's righthand woman Heather Simpson, after the investigation into claims that Labour breached spending caps at the 2005 election found a "prima facie" breach of the Electoral Act on Simpson's part.
The national crimes manager reasoned that a proven breach could ultimately impact on the "integrity of last year's election".
The former National Party leader became so incensed at police recalcitrance he wrote to Police Commissioner Howard Broad saying police had failed to live up to the public's expectation in its investigation.
National could not understand how police failed to prosecute Labour when the party had admitted Helen Clark's election pledge card was electioneering paid for from her Leader's budget.
As I pointed out in the column two weeks ago, which drew a parallel between Brash's situation and the burglary of the Democratic Party's Washington HQ in 1973 which kicked off the Watergate scandal, there are reasons to be sceptical of Quinn's diligence given his dilatory approach in the electoral spending probe.
But Broad, who was not in charge of police at the time of the earlier investigation, cannot afford his department to continue to be seen as a political adjunct to the Labour Government - a department that has been:
* Too spooked (previously) by the Beehive power clique to take a rigorous approach to investigating issues that might well have electoral implications, such as Labour's clear breach of electoral spending caps and the Taito Phillip Field affair, where police initially stepped aside in favour of QC Noel Ingram's inquiry;
* Too quick to throw the book at National MPs such as Shane Ardern over misdemeanours such as driving a tractor up Parliament's steps;
* Too ready to cut the PM's side slack when her own chief-of-staff is in the frame and they don't want to upset the electoral apple cart.
If Broad is in any doubt he should compare the results of the Quinn whitewash with Auditor-General Kevin Brady's subsequent inquiry which found Labour had raided some $800,000 of public funds, considerably more than the $400,000 it spent on Clark's pledge cards which were at the centre of the police inquiries.
The electoral breach was clearly more significant than the police found out in their own rather cursory investigations.
If Broad has further doubts he should take a look at the public estimation that Brady has earned by standing up without fear or favour to all the political parties (including United Future, NZ First and the Greens) which unlawfully helped themselves to public funds.
So far there are encouraging signs that Broad may be tougher than his predecessors.
Certainly, Quinn's investigation has widened since Brash's friend Diane Foreman made a formal complaint about some of the material Hager relied on to substantiate claims about her role in the former leader's putsch against Bill English and subsequent fund-raising.
Police are starting to refine their leads into just who "burglarised" Brash's files. But they are operating in an environment where leading Wellington lawyers and private investigators maintain that no crime was committed, as laid out under the Crimes Act, in respect of the purloining of the former National leader's communications.
If this is so, it smacks of the weasel words used by the one-man commission into the wine-box affair, who excused clear corporate malfeasance using a "form over substance" argument.
That's why I continue to maintain it will take a three-person public commission of inquiry to get to the bottom of the 2005 dirty election, where proceedings are open so that you and I - the voters - can reach our own conclusions.
