Editorial: Heatley had to go

OPINION: During dinner at a National Party conference in Christchurch last August, Phil Heatley, then the Minister of Housing and Fisheries, used his ministerial credit card to buy two bottles of wine.

Six months later those two bottles came back to haunt him. The way in which he accounted for their credit card purchase was the final straw which broke his ministerial career when Prime Minister John Key accepted his resignation yesterday.

Details of ministerial credit card spending were obtained by Fairfax journalists and published on Tuesday in The Press. Heatley acknowledged that some of his spending, including taking his family on a ministerial trip to the South Island and buying the wine, had been wrong.

He paid back this spending and disposed of his credit card. Heatley also issued an apology to Key, and this was accepted. But this reprieve proved short-lived.

Key discovered that the expenses claim for the wine listed the purchase as "dinner" and that the credit card receipt was notated as "food and beverage". These were incorrect as there was no food involved.

This inconsistency might seem like a technicality or an inadvertent error, rather than a reason for resigning. But whenever ministers spend public money they must be scrupulous about how they account for it and Heatley had little choice but to tender his resignation.

As for Key, having earlier defended his minister it would have been galling that Heatley had again embarrassed the Government. Key might also have been concerned at what other expenses skeletons might be lurking in Heatley's ministerial closet. This should be resolved as Heatley's offer to have all his expenses claims vetted by the Auditor-General has been accepted.

It will determine whether there have been other instances of incorrect spending which must be repaid by Heatley. If there are it will add to the culpability of the Ministerial Services officials who meekly approved the expenses. And this would also make the case for regular scrutiny of all ministerial and MP spending by an outside body.

After negative publicity over other Cabinet privileges, including ministerial housing allowances such those claimed by Finance Minister Bill English, the credit card revelations will confirm for many people that ministers, especially after a lengthy Opposition stint, devour all the perks they can. This is another reason why there should be greater independent scrutiny of their spending.

Heatley has become the second instance of "man overboard" for Key, following Richard Worth last year. The two cases are different in that Worth resigned after claims of inappropriate personal behaviour, whereas Heatley's fall involved the ministerial misuse of public money. Although the previous Labour administrations regularly lost ministers, for Key to have lost a pair of them so quickly is still embarrassing.

It is possible that Heatley could be recycled back into Cabinet, as were so many of the Labour ministers who resigned, depending on the Auditor-General's report. Yet even if Key were of a mind to do so, Heatley could find that he has been leap-frogged by other caucus members.

Heatley commented yesterday that "I need to spend a long time on the backbenches". It is likely that he will get his wish.

- © Fairfax NZ News