Key: Garrett seems to lack mandate

ACT Party MP David Garrett. Photo / Simon Baker

Prime Minister John Key doesn't see how disgraced Act MP David Garrett can remain in Parliament.

Mr Garrett is taking two weeks to consider his future after he resigned from the party caucus on Friday following revelations he stole a dead toddler's identity and used it to obtain a fake passport.

Should Mr Garrett opt to stay he could do so as independent MP, but if he quits, which he has indicated he is likely to, the next MP on ACT's list, Hillary Calvert, would come in.

Mr Key told Breakfast on TV One he did not think Mr Garrett would return.

"I think at the end of the day the New Zealand public has spoken very loudly, every poll I have seen on this stuff has basically said `no we don't want you' he doesn't really seem to have a mandate and I can't see him wanting to endure...".

ACT leader Rodney Hide's judgment has been questioned after it emerged he knew about Mr Garrett's 1984 fraud and arrest 21 years later, as Mr Garrett had told him before he joined the party in 2008.

Mr Garrett was convicted and discharged over the incident and the sentencing judge mentioned his otherwise "blameless life". However the judge did not appear to know about an assault conviction in Tonga.

Asked today if he could continue to work with ACT, Mr Key said Mr Hide was good to work with.

"He's very straight up and down with me, he's honest with me and actually, I mean what I said when I said last week, in the 22 months he's been a minister he's shown very good judgment as a minister and I think he's done a good job."

However he was keen to emphasise he had no responsibility for ACT's caucus.

"I am no more responsible for David Garrett than I am for Hone Harawira. The reality is we run our own party but come election day the New Zealand public expect you to do a deal and get on with it."

Mr Key said the reality of MMP was that National needed "friends" and that even though it achieved a very high result in the 2008 election, nearly 45 per cent, still needed support partners.

"Basically every MMP election we've had has delivered a minority government so I've got to cobble together that relationship."

Mr Key told Newstalk ZB that the public would be accepting of people with different backgrounds, including prior convictions but the in this case Mr Garrett had been hypocritical and his offense was distasteful: "Some things just register as more abhorrent than others and the stealing of the identity of a dead baby just registers right up there."

Last week Transport Minister Steven Joyce owned up to prior driving offences.

Mr Key said the minister had declared to the party the offending when he was chosen as a candidate.

"Yes he's had a couple of careless driving charges, that's very regrettable, the party knew about that.

"In the case of Mr Garrett he went out there to steal the identity...

Mr Hide yesterday said he was not putting pressure on Mr Garrett over his decision.

"But it seems to me the people elected five Act MPs - not four and an independent," he said.

Mr Hide said he would step down as party leader if it was in the best interests of the party and its survival, but he did not believe it was.

- NZPA