http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/336828/live-metiria-turei-resigns-as-green-party-co-leader

http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/live/national

yes Andrea…I have heard others say that too

That’s beneath you, Martyn. Kennedy Graham isn’t responsible for his brother – who got his in any case, as I recall. I don’t know what Kennedy Graham thought of that, but I don’t see that it has anything to do with the current political situation.

I’ve been astonished at the vindictiveness of the Greens and their supporters, not just toward Graham and Clendon, but also toward anyone who criticises Metiria Turei. Some of what I’ve read is just vile.

I was dubious about the benefit thing: I’ve to-ed and fro-ed about it for some time (having had experience of life on a benefit in the 90s), but have finally come down on the side of the critics. Then the revelations about her living arrangements decided it for me: it’s she who ought to resign. Graham and Clendon have shown her the path that she ought to have taken. Had she done that pronto, the party wouldn’t be in the mess in which it’s currently embroiled.

In my view, it’d have been a better strategy for her to have quietly gone to WINZ, ‘fessed up to her rorting of the system, got them to figure out how much she owed them, and to have paid it back. Then she could have gone public about it. As things stand, she comes across as arrogant and – by attempting to justify what she did – lacking insight into her actions.

The same applies to her enrolling to vote in an electorate in which she wasn’t living. She was by that time involved in politics, for all that it was just the McGillicuddy lot; she must have known that what she was doing wasn’t legitimate.

The vitriolic reaction of the Greens and their supporters both to her critics and to Graham and Clendon smacks of a group of people who’d sniffed electoral victory and can see it slipping out of their grasp. Now they’re lashing out at anyone who disagrees with them. This isn’t worthy of you. Any of you.

For what it’s worth, I think that Graham and Clendon have done the right thing. They’ve acted according to their consciences and done the only thing they could do so close to an election. And they’ve been obliged to do it because Turei would not do the right thing. I do not think that this will end well for her.

I’m sure there was an element of regret when Rodney Hide forced out Heather Roy?

‘It’s not very tidy,” an ACT staffer conceded sheepishly as the meltdown in relations between Rodney Hide and Heather Roy was laid bare. Talk about understatement.

The chaotic and at times bizarre handling of Mrs Roy’s dumping as ACT deputy this week was “not very tidy” in the same way the disintegration of the Alliance in 2002 could be described as “a bit messy”.

Even as the fallout over her sacking reached its most toxic, with the leaking on Wednesday of her claims of Mr Hide’s shouted abuse and stormy corridor rows, he was still painting her downfall as nothing more than a straightforward result of first-term MP John Boscawen deciding to have a crack at her job.

ref: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4046038/Toxic-sacking-leaves-ACT-in-a-mess

I hope the Greens delete all their texts like Bullshit Bill does, seems the correct corrupt thing to do. Metiria did not defraud the benefit in her capacity as a minister so if it’s good for Bullshit Bill it’s good for Metiria.

Fair enough David but a knighthood?

What the fuck for?

Cheers Mary. I doubt, as Frank highlighted, this is an isolated case, so the bastards have been stealing for some time. Metiria, as you correctly state, was for self preservation, Joyce and co, for self interest or just sheer arrogance.

You’re being reasonable in the midst of fervour. Brolly up before the spray starts to settle.

(You’re not white, middle class, successful and male by any chance? That’s Bad. Very Bad. They don’t like that here…)

Moi? Freckled, fem and beneficiary and that Turei woman does not ‘speak for me’. It’s people like her that lead to more trouble for genuine assistance seekers. Greens lost my vote for sure.