Wednesday, 05 June 2024 13:55

A low bar!

Written by The Hound

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OPINION: If the old saying that ‘political leaders are the reflection of our society’ is true, we need to have a good hard look at ourselves.

The bar seems to be set depressingly low to get into Parliament and the list of fairly average behaviour by sitting MPs is long.

Most recently we have National MP David MacLeod failing to declare $168,335 in donations – similar to former transport minister, Labour’s Michael Wood, ‘forgetting’ to sell his airport shares.

Many of the holier-than-thou Green MPs have disgraced themselves recently: Julie-Anne Genter, Darlene Tana and, of course, Golriz. The list goes on.

And let’s not forget the economic mess left behind by Grant Robertson and friends.

To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, ‘The politicians you elect are the politicians you deserve’.

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Anyone in the primary sector will know about the clowns covering the countryside in the red tape we all have to wade through.

Spare a thought then for media outfit Stuff who were threatened with fines up to $200,000 by a snivelling civil servant from the MoH for illustrating a quiz question with a photo of part of the cover of a 45-year-old copy Playboy.

As Stuff notes, “It wasn’t the Playboy cover which caused offence. No, it was the back page which… featured an advert for a cigarette brand”.

As Regulations Minister David Seymour notes, “The real scandal here is, well, no wonder we’ve got problems in healthcare when they’re doing the Stuff quiz during work time.”

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