Hone Harawira is in trouble over trouble he was in last year. If that sounds confusing, hopefully the Herald will explain:
Hone Harawira has dug a hole for himself. Instead of just shelling out the $632 himself, he fell back on socialism's favourite approach, and paid it with Other People's Money.
It's not like Hone is poor or anything. He's on a salary of $147,800, plus the added allowance for being a minor party leader. He's certainly in the top bracket of income earners in New Zealand, and probably closer to the 1% which he so frequently condemns that he would like to be.
Winston Peters, of course, denies shelling out, and Hone's saying nowt:
We've got news for Mr Harawira; this is NOT a petty manner. He was convicted of a criminal offence whilst acting publicly in his capacity as an MP, then he accepted donations to pay the fine, having been found guilty by the Court. He is required by law to declare the donations, and if he refuses to do so he could find himself in front of Parliament's privileges committee.
The law applies to every New Zealander. Hone Harawira cannot simply opt out of his legal obligations because of the political implications of them. He's made his bed, and now he has to lie in it; not from it.
Current and former MPs and "ordinary people" banded together to pay the $632 fine Hone Harawira received last year for defying police at a 2012 Auckland housing protest.
But while one of his Mana Party contenders claims Winston Peters was among the donors, Mr Harawira will not name them, even though it appears he is required to do so under parliamentary rules.
The Mana Party leader was arrested when he joined protesters fighting the removal of state houses in the East Auckland suburb of Glen Innes. He was alleged to have locked himself in his car and turned his music up, blocking a Housing New Zealand-contracted truck from leaving with one of the homes.
Several months later he was found guilty of failing to comply with a police instruction, fined $500 and ordered to pay $132 court costs.
But last week at a public meeting of Housing NZ tenants in Grey Lynn, the sole nominee for Mana Party candidate for Tamaki Makaurau, Kereama Pene, said: "Our Mana leader was dragged out of his car in GI.
He got done for it. Do you know who paid his $500 fine?"
Someone called out "Kim Dotcom!".
But Mr Pene said: "No, it was worse than that, much worse than that, it was Winston Peters."
Mr Harawira last week confirmed he received assistance to pay the fine but would not say who from.
"I don't want to go naming names. Some of them were ex-MPs, some of them were current MPs, some of them were just ordinary people from GI and from other walks of life."
The money was paid "in the same way that people helped fundraise to help myself and my wife go to South Africa last year [for Nelson Mandela's funeral]. I think they just genuinely supported what I was trying to achieve."
Hone Harawira has dug a hole for himself. Instead of just shelling out the $632 himself, he fell back on socialism's favourite approach, and paid it with Other People's Money.
It's not like Hone is poor or anything. He's on a salary of $147,800, plus the added allowance for being a minor party leader. He's certainly in the top bracket of income earners in New Zealand, and probably closer to the 1% which he so frequently condemns that he would like to be.
Winston Peters, of course, denies shelling out, and Hone's saying nowt:
Meanwhile, Mr Peters said Mr Pene was wrong about him paying the fine.
He recalled it wasn't a big fine and on being told it was $500, asked: "Why didn't he pay it himself?"
However, the fine, including costs, is large enough to require disclosure under the rules for Parliament's Register of Pecuniary Interests because it was paid by someone other than Mr Harawira.
The rules also require the identity of those paying off MPs' debts to be declared.
Mr Harawira last night refused to comment on what he said was a "petty" matter.
We've got news for Mr Harawira; this is NOT a petty manner. He was convicted of a criminal offence whilst acting publicly in his capacity as an MP, then he accepted donations to pay the fine, having been found guilty by the Court. He is required by law to declare the donations, and if he refuses to do so he could find himself in front of Parliament's privileges committee.
The law applies to every New Zealander. Hone Harawira cannot simply opt out of his legal obligations because of the political implications of them. He's made his bed, and now he has to lie in it; not from it.
