Mike's Minute: The vote today is for standards and rules

The debate around the Privileges Committee and their decision for the Māori Party MPs starts today. 

It's set to be a long-winded and largely pointless exercise. 

If you can be bothered, get a read on where each of the parties stand. 

Why? 

Because you will find that some parties don’t agree with the committee and think the so-called punishment is a bit hard. 

The Prime Minister was asked about this yesterday at his post-Cabinet press conference. In fact, they were the first questions asked, which was sad and yet again a reminder of how the Press Gallery is not really interested in the news of the day, and perhaps even the good news of the day. 

The good news of the day came from the Finance Minister, who was standing next to the Prime Minister at said conference and had been busy up to the question bit outlining some new tax treatment for investment and payments for start-ups and businesses looking for a bit of relief around rules and paperwork. 

That got scant coverage, despite the fact these are the very sort of issues, ideas, and polices that will drag this beleaguered economy out of the quagmire it is currently stuck in. 

As regards to the Privileges Committee, for the record, the Prime Minister stood firm on the ensuing debate, and whether or not by bargaining away the decision it could expedite what could be days of time wasting. 

Why this matters is because standards matter, and standards in this country have become embarrassing. What the Māori Party did was farcical, as well as embarrassing. 

Their punishment was not because they were Māori, or because what they did was Māori, it was because they broke the rules, and rules count or should count. 

Because when they don’t, people like the Māori Party and to a lesser degree the Labour Party and the Greens, bring us all into disrepute. 

Believe it or not, there are large swathes of this country that find what has been happening at our highest level of leadership to be completely and utterly shocking, as well as embarrassing and needless, and we are more than over it. 

By asking whether Government can plea bargain it away so we can skip a lengthy, boring debate is systematic of the problem itself. 

"Why deal to it, when we can ignore it or water it down?" 

If those who think this is all okay want to debate it and remind us what mediocre looks like, that's on them. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So this debate around the Privileges Committee and their decision
over the marry Party that starts today, as we've said,
set to be a long winded, largely pointless exercise. If
you can be bothered get a read on where each
of the parties stand why, because you will find that
some parties do not agree with the committee and think
the so called punishment is a little bit hard now.
The Prime Minister asked about this yesterday's post cabinet press conference.

(00:21):
In fact, they were the first questions asked, which was
a bit sad and yet again a reminder of how
the press gallery is not really interested in the news
of the day and perhaps even the good news of
the day, because the good news of the day came
from the Finance Minister who were standing next to him
at said conference and a bit busy up to the
question bit outlining some new tax treatment for investment and
payments for startups, the stuff we've just been talking about,
and business is looking for a bit of a relief

(00:42):
around rules and paperwork that got scant coverage despite the
fact these are the very sorts of issues, ideas and
policies that will drag this beleagued economy out of the
quagmire it's currently stuck in. As regards the Privileges Committee,
for the record, the PM stood firm on the ensuing
debate and whether or not by bargaining away the decision
it could expedite what could be days of time wasting.

(01:02):
Now why this matters is because standards matter, and standards
in this country have become embarrassing. What the Maori Party
did was fascical as well as embarrassing. And it was
not because they're Maori or because what they did was Maori.
It was because they broke the rules and rules count
or should count, because when they don't, people like the

(01:24):
Mari Party into a lesser degree. The Labour Party in
the Greens bring us all into distribute. Believe it or not,
there are large swaths of this country that find what
has been happening at our highest level of leadership to
be completely and utterly shocking as well as embarrassing and needless.
And we're more than over it. And by asking whether
the Government can plea bargain it away so we can

(01:44):
skip a lengthy, boring debate is systematic and the problem itself, Oh,
I deal with it when we can ignore it or
water it down. If those who think this is all
okay want to debate it and remind us what mediocre
looks like, that's on them. For more from the Mic
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