Whenever I think commonsense I picture Peter Dunne. For 30 years he has been Mr Middle-of-the-Road, a safe pair of hands, the goody-two-shoes of the New Zealand Parliament.
And so, like everyone from the Prime Minister down, I was shocked that he was implicated in leaking a sensitive government report. I struggled to believe it.
No one is more shocked than Dunne himself. He admits to acting "extraordinarily unwisely, even stupidly" but categorically denies leaking the report. He "cannot rationally explain why things happened the way they did".
It's like he was possessed and the Devil made him do it.
"Mr Middle-of-the-Road"; that's a pretty good description of Peter Dunne. He has been sufficiently moderate to be able to empower both Labour and National governments, and as we have previously noted, did a competent job with the Revenue portfolio, the ministerial role that no-one really wants. So his fall from grace was surprising and unexpected.
Hide continues, noting that leaking from politicians is nothing new:
It was Dunne's basic goodness that did for him. Politicians leak all the time. Helen Clark was masterful. But they don't get caught. That's because they know what they're doing.
You certainly don't use your Parliamentary email. You don't discuss with a journalist the possibility of leaking. That gives them the power, either through error or design, to get you sacked.
If you're going to leak, leak; don't leave your fingerprints all over it.
The leaking, too, has to have a point: it advances your cause, knocks an enemy off course, distracts the media from your own problems, or helps set the agenda. The leak was of no political benefit to Dunne whatsoever.
Hide is dead right; Helen Clark was indeed the mistress of the leak, as former Police Commissioner Peter Doone found out. Helen Clark's Wikipedia page notes:
In 2000, the then Police Commissioner, Peter Doone, resigned after the Sunday Star-Times alleged he had prevented the breath testing of his partner Robyn, who had driven the car they occupied, by telling the officer "that won't be necessary". Both Doone and the officer involved denied this happened. Doone sued the Sunday Star-Times for defamation in 2005 but the paper revealed they had checked the story with Clark. She confirmed this, but denied that she had made attempts to get Doone to resign and defended being the source as "by definition I cannot leak".
Clark and Heather Simpson were a formidable pairing; well schooled in the dark arts of politics. Peter Dunne couldn't have been much further from that, as Hide notes in his concluding paragraphs:
Parliament is a lonely place and Dunne has been especially lonely, being a long-time party of just one. He supported Helen Clark for two terms as Prime Minister. He's now in his second term supporting John Key. In our tribal Parliament, he lacks a side. His politics are middle-of-the-road and boring. No one is much interested in him.
And then whoosh - a new and engaging journalist asks about his work. He gets carried away. He says a little too much. He isn't immediately struck by lightning. He emails. He's still standing.
And then bang: his 30-year political career is toast. He struggles to explain his behaviour and reads of his misdeeds believing it must be about someone else.
That's the trouble with Sunday School-types. They don't know how to do naughty, and when to run with it and when to leave it alone. They can't distinguish a little bit naughty from too naughty even for bad boys.
That is an interesting comment from Hide. A career's worth of service has been undone by a momentary lapse in Peter Dunne's judgment. It is an unfortunate epitaph.
No comments:
Post a Comment