Friday, November 06, 2009



Earning that reputation II

Hone Harawira has responded to criticism of his deciding to blow off work on a fact-finding mission to the European Parliament in favour of a taxpayer-subsidised sightseeing trip to Paris by lashing out at the "puritanical bullshit" of "white motherfuckers". Classy. But Hone doesn't just think that ripping off the system is just payback for colonialism - there are also entitlement issues:

Mr Harawira then went on to say how much time and energy he put into fighting for Maori and what a big role his wife Hilda played in that.

"And quite frankly I don't give a sh** what you or anyone else thinks about it. OK?"

Yes, Hone works very hard for his people as an MP; that's why we pay him $131,000 a year, plus expenses ($132,599 so far this year, excluding his $14,000 Civil List expense allowance). If he thinks that's not enough for his efforts, then he should stand up and say so - but "working hard" doesn't entitle him to steal from the public purse, any more than it entitles your local bank manager to commit fraud to boost his salary.