Roy On Selective Prosecutions
ACT MP Heather Roy on selective prosection of MPs
After months of waiting for the results of a police investigation former Labour MP Taito Phillip Field, who is now an independent MP formally received the news this week that Police are seeking leave from the High Court to proceed with 14 charges of bribery by a Member of Parliament.
In light of the now long string of MPs who have been investigated by the police since Labour came to power I asked the following question in Parliament on Thursday:
Heather Roy: Is not the real reason the Prime Minister has changed her mind about Taito Phillip Field that he has fallen out of her favour and that a pattern is emerging in the use of police discretion when prosecuting MPs, as evidenced by the police not prosecuting the Prime Minister for art fraud, or dangerous driving through South Canterbury, assault on a minor by Minister Benson-Pope, assault by Minister Hodgson, breach of the Companies Act by Minister Parker, and electoral fraud by the Labour Party, as opposed to the charging of Shane Ardern for driving a tractor, Nick Smith for standing up for a constituent, Donna Awatere Huata for fraud, and Taito Phillip Field for bribery, and what is her part in this pattern?
Michael Cullen, answering on behalf of the Prime Minister was able only to provide an incoherent answer, in part because his Labour colleagues were making so much noise in the debating chamber it was hard to hear.
Each case must be judged on its merits but regardless of Mr Field's innocence or guilt the pattern is hard to ignore. We cannot allow a situation to develop whereby the government's opponents are the only ones to face the long arm of the law. The separation of justice and government is fundamental to a free society.
After months of waiting for the results of a police investigation former Labour MP Taito Phillip Field, who is now an independent MP formally received the news this week that Police are seeking leave from the High Court to proceed with 14 charges of bribery by a Member of Parliament.
In light of the now long string of MPs who have been investigated by the police since Labour came to power I asked the following question in Parliament on Thursday:
Heather Roy: Is not the real reason the Prime Minister has changed her mind about Taito Phillip Field that he has fallen out of her favour and that a pattern is emerging in the use of police discretion when prosecuting MPs, as evidenced by the police not prosecuting the Prime Minister for art fraud, or dangerous driving through South Canterbury, assault on a minor by Minister Benson-Pope, assault by Minister Hodgson, breach of the Companies Act by Minister Parker, and electoral fraud by the Labour Party, as opposed to the charging of Shane Ardern for driving a tractor, Nick Smith for standing up for a constituent, Donna Awatere Huata for fraud, and Taito Phillip Field for bribery, and what is her part in this pattern?
Michael Cullen, answering on behalf of the Prime Minister was able only to provide an incoherent answer, in part because his Labour colleagues were making so much noise in the debating chamber it was hard to hear.
Each case must be judged on its merits but regardless of Mr Field's innocence or guilt the pattern is hard to ignore. We cannot allow a situation to develop whereby the government's opponents are the only ones to face the long arm of the law. The separation of justice and government is fundamental to a free society.
posted by Trevor Loudon at
5/25/2007 03:16:00 PM
2 Comments:
Heather Darling:
You need to get yourself a copy of the Land Transport Act 1998 before you nut off about dangerous driving through Canterbury.
And you also need to do some reading on the essential concepts of "mens rea" and "actus reus" in the criminal law.
How intellectually cheap of you to mouth off without doing either !
I was always taught that the mark of a clever man/woman who knows nothing is to know that he/she knows nothing.
PS: Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Donna Awatere-Huata an ACToid ?
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