Is Hide on his way to the Priveleges Committee?

Rodney Hide may breached privilege by seriously misleading the House.

This is one for you legal types out there but from a layperson’s perspective it looks like it. Here’s what happened

On Wednesday, Phil Twyford (or Twif-ford as Hide insists on calling him) asked Hide whether “he has costed the super-city proposal outlined in [the government's report]?”. Hide replied simply “Yes”.

On Thursday, Twyford asked Hide “How much will the government’s super-city proposal cost to implement and to run annually?” Hide’s answer: “Implementation costs will be minuscule compared with the present costs of running the various Auckland councils”

Twyford followed up: “What is the cost of the Government’s super-city proposal to implement and run annually?” Hide tried to avoid answering and eventually gave the minuscule answer again. Speaker Lockwood Smith told him that wasn’t good enough and asked him to give the cost if he had it (Trevor Mallard pointed out Hide had already said he did have it). Hide ummed and ahhed some more, Gerry Brownlee tried to cover for him but Smith insisted on an answer. This was it - Hide: ”The government actually does not have the cost of implementation”

But wait a minute, just a day earlier he had said the government did have the cost and the ‘miniscule’ comments imply he knows the cost, wasn’t that seriously misleading the House?

Oh dear. It's not looking good for Rodney. Serious this upsets me. I've always thought of Rodney as one of the few people in Parliament who actually took ethics and process seriously. I'm disappointed to say the least.

However, imagine if Rodney is censured by the privileges committee - the authors of the standard will be telling us that like Winston it's nothing serious really. He'll get admonished, perhaps be told he's a naughty boy by his major party leader who can do no wrong and we will all move on.

So what do you reckon Eddie? - we apply the same standard of "what do we do now" to Rodney if hes censured as was applied to Winston?

I think he should resign his ministerial warrant if he is censured - thats what I said for Winston as well. Look I hope its not the case, but if it is I'm going to enjoy posting all sorts of links to compare what the authors of the standard say about Rodney compared to what they said about Winston.

Take care guys - the burt is watching.