Kerre Woodham: Cheek loses its charm when snout is in the trough

Hone Harawira may lose his swagger when Tariana Turia gets hold of him. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Okay. Perhaps it would be easier to ask the politicians who aren't bludging freebies to put up their hands.

We've had the Carters, Chris and David, Rodney Hide and Peter Dunne swanning off overseas with their partners.

We've got the Green MPs and Bill English finessing their housing allowances, and now we've got Hone and Hilda Harawira hiving off from official duties to head to Paris and take in the sights.

Whoever made Hone the leader of the three-member New Zealand delegation to Brussels clearly forgot Hone has a propensity for walkabouts - remember the Maori Party MP had to pay back some of the costs of a trip to Australia after he went bush?

But Hone is, as ever, unrepentant.

He says he cleared his tiki-tour with the chairwoman of the EU committee and promised if she gave him a leave pass, he'd introduce her to some All Blacks.

The chairwoman apparently "glowed with happiness" at the thought of an All Black encounter, and Hone and Hilda were off.

The Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, the City of Love - hell, Hone reckons a man would be dumb to go to Europe and not take the opportunity to see Paris.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is just boring, Hone says, and besides, he answers only to his people, not to anyone else.

His people presumably include Tariana Turia, who must be regretting her decision to stay on as co-leader of the Party when her MPs are acting like this.

She has taken a very dim view of Hone's trip and Hone's cocksure arrogance might be knocked sideways once he has been carpeted by the headmistress.

And he is certainly not deserving of mercy after his foul-mouthed email tirade.

Hone is not the first MP to go walkabout - remember Richard Worth skipping the memorial to the Maori Battalion in Egypt to go camel-riding? And no, that's not a euphemism.

When are these MPs going to get it though their heads that the days of troughing and entitlement are over?

* www.kerrewoodham.com

- HERALD ON SUNDAY