Editorial: Sunlight the best disinfectant

Phil Heatley. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Opinion

John Key has a soothing tone about him as, yet again, he assures us there is nothing to worry about: there may have been the odd "stupid and silly" mistake, but our MPs are scrupulously honest.

This, as the Prime Minister asks the auditor-general to glance over ministers' credit card spending in the turbulent wake of Phil Heatley's resignation from Cabinet. To smooth the roiled waters, as it were.

We've heard this before.

In May last year, as British police launched inquiries into the abuse of allowances by that country's MPs, John Key assured us that there were "clear differences" between the UK and New Zealand systems.

New Zealanders want to believe him. They take pride in this country's international reputation as one of the least corrupt nations in the world.

The trouble is, every tiny step towards transparency has been resisted by MPs with uncharacteristic unanimity.

They insist that disclosure of their spending on the public purse would be a gross invasion of their privacy and their families'. And when each step is made, it has disturbed MPs scurrying for cover.

Sir Roger Douglas spending thousands on a trip to London to visit the grandkids; Bill English claiming more than $900 a week towards his $1.2 million Wellington home; Rodney Hide taking his girlfriend to Hawaii and to her brother's wedding in England; Hone Harawira skipping an official meeting to take his wife to see the Eiffel Tower.

Phil Heatley, interestingly, has gone scurrying at every step.

He and his wife used his 75 per cent international air travel discount for a holiday in the Cook Islands.

The housing minister was housing another National MP in the Wellington apartment he owned, pocketing the subsidised rent, then housing his own family in a ministerial home - also subsidised.

And, of course, as we learned this week, he ran up a $70 bill on his ministerial credit card for a couple of bottles of wine for the table he and his wife were hosting at the National Party conference. On his claim forms, he disingenuously described the charge as "Minister and Spouse: dinner".

That was just the tip of the iceberg of his personal spending on a credit card that is meant to be used exclusively for ministerial business.

"In my opinion," said Key, "he wasn't attempting to rort the taxpayer. But they are stupid mistakes, silly mistakes and I wouldn't expect my ministers to make them."

Heatley's resignation has been spun as the exceedingly conscientious stand of a man of principle, willing to sacrifice his power and privilege and $243,700 ministerial salary over a $70 mistake in some administrative paperwork. "A victim of his own high standards," said his local paper in Whangarei.

Rubbish.

Since Monday, Heatley has been forced to repay more than $1200 in personal expenses he ran up on his ministerial card in flagrant disregard for the rules.

He claims he did not know the rules - even though documents issued to the Dominion Post reveal he was repeatedly warned by officials.

These are not the small slip-ups of a minister focused on bigger, more important issues.

These are evidence of a self-righteous sense of entitlement that, frankly, one doesn't expect to see from ministers until the complacent, dying days of an ageing government.

In December, Heatley said that while he expected more scrutiny as a member of the Government, he was surprised by the furore over MPs' expenses and how his personal life came under the microscope.

Now, he apologises tearfully in the hope that voters might relate to him on a personal level and forgive him his public sins.

The fact is, with each new level of disclosure of how MPs spend public money, it has become more apparent why that disclosure is needed. As the jailing of Taito Phillip Field showed, we do have corruption in politics - and only by shining light in the darker corners can it be cleaned up.

Parliament must make two, critical steps towards real openness, to justify the trust the public places in its members.

First, MPs must be required to keep receipts showing all spending on their $14,000 expenses allowance, and those receipts should be scrutinised by the Parliamentary Service as they would be by any other employer. And secondly, the Parliamentary Service must be opened up to the public accountability of the Official Information Act, like any other government department.

Only then will Key be justified in claiming, "the standards my ministers are being held to are dramatically higher".