Hide Apologises
John Cawston
Hide apologises: 'I am not proud'
Act leader Rodney Hide has apologised for claiming taxpayer money
to take his partner on overseas trips and says he will repay all
of it.
Mr Hide claimed 90 per cent fare discounts for Louise Crome - an
entitlement all MPs have - when they went to Hawaii for a holiday
and then when he took her London, Canada and the United States so
she could be with him on a ministerial visit.
Mr Hide is MP for Epsom and minister of local government. He
visited those countries to study local government structures.
"I want to apologise to the public. I want to apologise to my
colleagues and my supporters," he said at a press conference today.
"But most importantly I want to apologise to the people of Epsom.
I promised the people of Epsom I would make them proud of me as
their MP. I have let them down, I have made mistakes."
>>Listen: Rodney Hide's apology
Mr Hide made a name for himself as a "perkbuster" when he first
came to Parliament, and he severely criticised the travel and
other allowances MPs are entitled to.
He did not break the rules by claiming the fare discount for Ms
Crome, but he said he had been wrong to do so.
"I am not proud of my casual use of taxpayers' money to take a
holiday in Hawaii with my partner," he said.
"That was wrong. My decision to repay that money ($10,022) was
easy when I took time to reflect on what I had done."
He said he had now decided to repay the cost of his partner's
airfares for the trip to London, Canada and the United states.
"I will be providing Parliamentary services with a cheque for
$11,952 in the morning."
Mr Hide extended his apology to include Prime Minister John Key.
He made disparaging remarks about Mr Key at a public meeting in
Christchurch, saying the prime minister did not do much.
Mr Key brushed it off as light-hearted banter, but Mr Hide said
today he had caused a distraction by making those remarks.
"I want to publicly apologise to John Key for distracting
attention away from the important job his government has in
lifting New Zealand's economic performance," he said.
"The prime minister has entrusted me with a big and important
job. He is excellent to work with and I appreciate his very
generous support - especially over the last two weeks."
Mr Hide said he was making two commitments to the public, his
colleagues and supporters.
"I will never again use taxpayers' money for any overseas holidays.
"I will continue to work hard to do the very best job I can as a
minister and a Member of Parliament to honour the trust that the
people of Epsom have shown in electing me to represent them."
Mr Hide said none of his colleagues had told him to repay the
money, they had left the decision up to him.
He said he had learned a lesson about himself in the last two
weeks, and realised he was not living up to the standards he had
set himself.
"I just thought... those are the rules (about travel expenses),
and that's where I lost sight of it," he said.
"It's not easy for anyone to admit they've stuffed up."
Mr Hide said he was not telling any other MP what they should do
about claiming expenses because it was up to each of them to make
up their own minds.
WorkHard
> http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10608061
>
> Hide apologises: 'I am not proud'
Amazing how all these mp's can write out cheques for many
thousands of dollars at the drop of a hat.
Almost as if money grows on trees.
Petito
--
PB1...@gmail.com
"John Cawston" <rewa...@ihug.co.nz> wrote in message
news:hd5o4m$j40$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
> http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10608061
>
> Hide apologises: 'I am not proud'
Translation: ' I'm only doing this because I got caught out.'
E. Scrooge
"WorkHard" <w...@workhard.org> wrote in message
news:xaGdnR2IBrnB6GvX...@giganews.com...
Not hard to imagine when it's from the government funds instead of from
their own bank accounts. If it was from their own bank accounts you can bet
the buggers would be more careful on how much they waste from it each time
they attack their own money.
E. Scrooge
Katipo
"John Cawston" <rewa...@ihug.co.nz> wrote in message
news:hd5o4m$j40$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>
> Hide apologises: 'I am not proud'
>
>
> Act leader Rodney Hide has apologised for claiming taxpayer money to take
> his partner on overseas trips and says he will repay all of it.
>
MPs sometimes have to be overseas for lengthy periods. Therefore I don't
have a problem with them taking their women with them - who wants to risk
foreign hookers anyway?
Having said that I would like Rodders to confirm his stop over in Pomgolia
for the wedding, really was just a case of good timing.
John Cawston
Kerre Woodhams accurately describes Rodneys problem as
"menoporsche", ie, that time when a man sheds the flab and the
wife, takes up with younger birds, fast cars and tries to keep up
with a racier set.
Menoporsche is a hormonal change that brings on hubris, and you
can just bet he believed he was doing so much, so well, that he
deserved that wedding on the taxpayer.. and of course, prior to
the recession and Keys ruling to open MP spending to the public,
all the pre 1999 MPs could and did enjoy Hide's privilege without
scrutiny or sanction.
So of course the trip was planned with the wedding in mind.. he
was showing off to the GF.
JC
>
>
Enkidu
> http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10608061
>
> Hide apologises:
>
Cheers,
Cliff
--
The Internet is interesting in that although the nicknames may change,
the same old personalities show through.