Political action or inaction?

OPINION: Should action be taken against the Green’s Metirua Turei for not telling the truth about her past social welfare payments?

Metirua Turei shocked many people recently by openly stating on TV that she had lied as a solo mother in order to get extra social welfare payments.  It was a long time ago so it is tempting to shrug your shoulders and just let it go.  No doubt it’s not the first time something like that has happened and it will surely not be the last.  And it could well be that she was in genuine need of extra help at the time.

However, she broke the law and should be prosecuted, even though she has offered to pay the money back.  If no action is taken others could be encouraged to do the same thing and also expect to get away with it.  And there is no doubt that her disclosure was made in order to gain publicity and political advantage for the announcement of Green Party policies in this area.  So the intention was to obtain benefits from her public admission that she broke the law.

However, it is a fair bet that nothing will happen except for some harsh words from political opponents – especially in the National Party.  The problem is not that there is no case to answer but that to try to prosecute such a case after such a long time would make those taking the case look mean spirited and politically motivated (which they probably would be).  Also, the cost of taking action could well exceed the amount of money involved anyway.  There was certainly no contrition or remorse involved

But should this be the case?

I don’t have a strong opinion about this particular example, but it would “even the playing field” as it were if there was agreement amongst political parties and in the community about how cases like this should be treated.  I think the key principle here is that the law should apply to everyone equally, even if this means the public expense of a prosecution –  and if it is apparent that the law has been broken then prosecution should be considered.  This does not mean that prosecution will necessarily occur. The Police have some discretion on that and they may choose to apply that discretion for perfectly sound reasons.  More importantly, I think the community should give our politicians a clear message that it is not OK to break the law. There is a particular dislike of politicians owning up to having done so, just for political advantage.

By Bas Walker

This is another of Bas Walker’s posts on GrownUps.  Please look out for his articles, containing his Beachside Ponderings.