Phil Goff has taken decisive action over the abuse of Ministerial credit cards by some former Labour Ministers, demoting Chris Carter, Shane Jones and Mita Ririnui and stripping them of their portfolios. Good. What these MPs did was nothing short of theft, and there should be no place in our politics for thieves. But while these MPs have received some punishment, its not enough. Remember, an ordinary person who stole from their employer in that fashion would be sacked, and lucky to escape prosecution. Meanwhile, another offender - Clayton Cosgrove, who charged us for his sightseeing trips, replaced "lost" luggage and clothing with alarming regularity and made excessively long overseas trips against official advice - gets off scot free.
This is not good enough. Zero tolerance for corruption should mean exactly that. Instead, Labour is turning a blind eye, and tolerating a thief who has abused the public trust in their own ranks.
As with their support for Taito Philip Field, this ought to be a source of deep shame for Labour party MPs and activists. The Labour Party is supporting a thief. And that means that no decent person can support it.
