“I’m committed to stay at least until the election… I know I have the support of my party and the support of my caucus”

The utterances of a selfish and arrogant party leader that places herself at the front line of calling for resignations at the slightest hint of trouble within opposing parties. It’s not so much the offending that most people object to, not to take away from its seriousness, but the lack of contrition. The sanctimonious entitlement that elevates her above the standard of accountability that the Greens so often hold others to.

Talkback callers have often remarked “she’s selfish and has no regard for the other members of her party.” Well, yes and no. Two members….unusually for Greens…developed a conscience and threatened to resign if Turei didn’t get her front feet out of the trough. She adamantly refused to roll over, and subsequently the resignations of Kennedy Graham and David Clendon were offered, much to the party’s disgust in trying to get a vindictive jab in first with a suspension from caucus. As for the rest of them, they’re neck deep in this muck now and no sympathy should be felt nor expressed.

The other fallout from this is the unintended consequences of the public’s perspective of co-leader James Shaw, who has defended Turei and her actions to the hilt. Shaw, since becoming leader has been seen as a steady pair of hands with an ounce of credibility and slightly more than his predecessor, the aussie socialist and economically inept Russell Norman: who had none. That all went out the ranch slider with his explaining and support for her benefit and electoral fraud and trying to bury the whole thing under the “wider conversation of poverty.”

$57,096 is owed to the New Zealand taxpayer, the result of 3 years of benefit fraud. And please, spare me the “oh but she was young then” argument, she’s fatter, older and uglier now and more aware of the implications….and still has no remorse for her actions. She sees herself as a hero, a champion of the poor. All she’s done is make a mockery of the people that legally manage to get by on the benefit, and thumbed her nose at those who funded her offending: YOU.

With a salary in excess of $200,000, there’s not a snowballs chance in a microwave she will leave the trough voluntarily. Whether or not she gets offered a ministerial position in any potential government is irrelevant, she still retains her position as a party co leader and a cushy income. Her position is now both legally and morally untenable.

I eagerly await the next polls, but it could hardly be said at the moment that the Greens leadership has their finger on the pulse. It is too firmly embedded in the pie. Or up the backside of the taxpayer.

If morals were a rope, she wouldn’t have enough to pull herself out of a carpark puddle let alone hang herself. (that’s a metaphor, don’t get triggered)