0 It's not OK; even if you're blue

We blogged in May about National Party List MP Claudette Hauiti making an unacceptable cock-up. Unfortunately, she's in the news again for another lapse of judgment as the Herald reports:

National Party MP Claudette Hauiti has given up her parliamentary charge card after she used it to pay for a personal trip to Australia.
"I went to Australia. It was travel only and way outside Parliamentary Service guidelines," she told Fairfax Media.
She said the trip over Christmas last year and other questionable spending, including refreshments for a hui on a marae, had cost about $200, which she has since repaid.
"Of course it's absolutely no excuse for not knowing the Speaker's rulings. It is my responsibility and I didn't do it."
Parliamentary Service refused to provide a total of unauthorised spending, or comment on the matter.
"A new release of parliamentary information protocol has just been presented for debate in the House, and it would appear that this information is covered under it.

The Service cannot make any comment. Any requests for information should be made to the member," a spokeswoman said.

That's two strikes for Claudette Hauiti. We don't care that she is a National Party MP; she has let herself fall into the trap of questionable use of taxpayer funds, and that is, in our book, a big no-no.

Ms Hauiti was ranked at #63 on the National Party list in 2011, but entered Parliament with the resignation of Aaron "Don't you know who I am" Gilmore. We don't know if the 2014 National Party list has yet been set in stone, but Ms Hauiti his quite possibly cost herself any chance of promotion.

MP's of all stripes need to remember it's not their money they're spending. It comes from those of us who pay taxes, and we deserve better.

0 Ignorance is no excuse

A National MP has got herself into strife; Stuff reports:

A National MP has broken Parliament's rules by employing her civil union spouse in her electorate office.
List MP Claudette Hauiti's wife, Nadine Mau, was employed as an issues assistant in Hauiti's electorate office in Auckland from April 7 until last Wednesday when she was sacked.
Under direction from Speaker David Carter, MPs are not allowed to employ their spouse or partner, either in or outside Parliament.
Hauiti said she was unaware of the prohibition on employing spouses when she contracted her wife to work in her office.
"I'm really disappointed that I didn't know the rules, I've only been here a year and I should have kept up to speed with that and I didn't.
"I made a really big mistake."
Hauiti said she thought her wife would make a pertinent issues assistant because of the type of work she did with Maori communities.
"So I just took it upon myself to think that I could do that, but I was wrong.
"We were both mortified, we didn't know [the rules] - either of us. We were both really shocked." 

There really is no excuse for not knowing the rules with regard to what an MP can and cannot do. There has been so much publicity over MP expenses in recent years that an error as elementary as this should not happen.

MP's do not operate in a vacuum. There are all sorts of sources of advice available, and it is solely Ms Hauiti's problem that she did not seek clarification over the rules.

Claudette Hauiti has indeed "made a really big mistake". It ought not have happened, and she has no one to blame but herself for the adverse publicity she has brought herself and the National Party. At the very least, she should pay the wages paid to Ms Mau back so that the taxpayer is not out of pocket as a result of her stuff-up. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse.