Kerre Woodham: It's time to end this bickering

Mr Reasonable is back and saying what everyone's thinking. Peter Dunne has called for an end to the political barbarism being exhibited in Parliament's debating chamber and says the insults, name calling and personal allegations are damaging the reputation of Parliament and must stop.

I couldn't agree with him more, and although both sides are guilty of bad behaviour, it's Labour that really needs to front up to the public. The Auditor General's preliminary report into overspending on the election campaign signalled that Labour's pledge cards shouldn't have been paid for by the taxpayer.

And Labour Party officials need to stump up with the cash, apologise for getting it wrong and get on with the business of government - which they've been doing well for the past few years - instead of backing themselves into a corner and fighting like rabid rats.

The talk of retrospective legislation, which would basically rewrite the rules and make the mistakes legal, is a dreadful idea.

The public is contemptuous, and rightly so, of this sort of self-serving action. If there's a problem with the way the rules are written, and not all parties believe there is, then work together to draft better legislation rather than respond in a kneejerk way designed to get parties off the hook.

All this nonsense about the Nats and the Exclusive Brethren has to stop, too. It's just plain embarrassing watching Cabinet ministers shrieking that the Nats have got weird friends whose mothers dress them funny.

Whatever you might think of the religious sect, they are perfectly entitled to fund pamphlets promulgating a particular viewpoint, just as people are perfectly entitled to put the pamphlets into the bin.

People are also free to donate whatever money they want to whichever political party they choose. Steve Maharey is allowed to dip into his own pocket to support the striking distribution workers, if he so wishes. And if insurance companies think their best interests lie with National, why can't they make donations in an attempt to get their party of choice into power?

It's exactly the same as the unions siding with Labour, knowing they are more likely to get better deals for their workers with a left-leaning government. There's nothing scurrilous about different lobby groups wanting to put a party in power that will look after them - for years, farming families voted National and the urban workers voted Labour, and nobody thought anything of it.

The Herald/DigiPoll last week was resoundingly clear - the vast majority of people want to see Labour pay back the money. The vast majority of voters would also like to see the Government get on with the business of governing, rather than trying to distract attention from their taxpayer-funded pledge-cards by hurling abuse at all and sundry. It was a Labour Party stuff up, and they should front up, pay up and shut up.