By John Tamihere
This week the Department of Internal Affairs disclosed detailed lists identifying expenditure of ministers in the Labour Government from 2003-2008. I was a minister from 2002-2004.
I had no idea I could order massages, flowers, porn movies and booze galore. The biggest scalp achieved by the clever release of this information was Shane Jones.
While others erred and were arguably worse, particularly Chris Carter, Jones is the big story.
He was carefully groomed from birth, being largely brought up by his grandparents in the ways of the Maori culture and language of the northern peoples. Whether it was at school or after school, he surged into top positions very quickly.
He headed the early start-up of the Ministry of Environment, proceeded to a masters qualification at Harvard University and returned to take up a directorship role with the Maori Fisheries Commission.
His advice was sought from Prime Ministers and members of Parliament on both sides of the House.
He entered Parliament as the Labour Party attack weapon on the Maori Party and as a person who had huge cross-over appeal into non-Maori communities.
He has Dalmatian ancestry and was gaining significant support for a tilt at the Labour leadership once they lose the 2011 election. Until this week Jones was riding high. All hell broke loose with the revelation he had continually gamed the system by wrongly using his credit card for a range of personal expenditure.
We now know large sums were spent on watching no less than 19 pornographic movies while eating Hell pizza – the flavour being prawn-o-graphic.
Some may say unkindly he's a sick cat and needs professional help.
The Jones story is tailor-made for a soap opera. It has sex, race, corruption, voyeurism and human frailty right through it. There are a number of people in the present Labour caucus who see his demise as a major opportunity for them.
Equally, the Opposition would see his demise as a major coup.
The question is, can he survive as a politician? He is a list MP and does not have a constituency to fall back on. He is at the whim of the back-room Labour Party machinery.
That machinery is driven predominantly by a group of women who stretch across the gay, union and the woman's divisions of the party. They control the moderation committee that decides where you sit on the party list. I sat on that committee for the 1999 and 2002 elections.
Jones heads into the new week with major problems.
Notwithstanding the extremely poor judgment he has shown and the abuse of the credit card for personal use, he has brought shame and dishonour on his whanau, his children and his outstanding wife.
Unfortunately, in politics the price your family pays when you are under the hammer is a sense of hurt and difficulty that cannot be healed.
Sunday News, 13th June 2010