Carter can go too

Fran O'Sullivan in the NZ Herald. Would she describe Pakeha business politics as a 'gravy train'? Or is that term just a lazy cliché reserved for Maori?
Beyer was never a minister. Just wrong - and there's no reason to get it wrong. Factually wrong and lazy clichéd writing from O'Sullivan. The prejudiced, conservative, dykocracy bullshit to one side - she's factually wrong and the writing, by any standard, is poor. If a sub-editor of some description has been through this then they should be fired. If O'Sullivan has written this piece directly, without any sub-editing, then she should be fired and the editor that let her do it without an edit should also be fired.

But getting past the lazy clichéd writing and the totally inaccurate facts, she missed out the real fact that Shane Jones was also a double-dipper when he entered parliament on the Labour list and then refused to give up his Fisheries Commission seat. So his private splurging on the Crown credit card is just par for the course - he had the symptoms of entitlement syndrome the day he became an MP.

What offended me most in this avalanche of hotel bills and miscellaneous ministerial receipts wasn't Shane Jones' hotel proclivities, it was Chris Carter's disgusting attitude, especially to the massive limousine bill from the Aussie government. On National radio he told an exasperated Kathryn Ryan that the Aussie government charge us and we don't charge them. She asked why we don't then - given it is so expensive. In a patronising tone he told her that if she wanted to complain she could. He blew all that money and he reckons it's the questioner's problem to fix!? He has to go.

That greasy, grinning, oaf couldn't care less and he has to go.

He demonstrates he absolutely could not care less about how much he cost the taxpayers or what exactly he was spending their money on. He didn't care that NZ should at least reciprocate - he's obviously never thought about it and doesn't care to. His job, as he must see it, is to spend the money; go around the world - with his partner - and spend the money. The amount isn't important - as long as they're all having a first class time on their junkets/holidays it's all good.

Have a dinner with your mates in London and bill it all to the Crown. It only cost $600 or so. He told Ryan - almost apoplectic at this stage - that they were all connected with the government in some way and that the British member of their party was "briefing us about the change in the British cabinet" as I think he tried to put it by way of a reason the bill should be covered by Ministerial Services. Ryan - and anyone listening to his justifications - would have considered them unconvincing and spurious.

His stance was quite clear: some squalid little peasant on the state radio wants to quibble about some policy that sees tens of thousands - maybe hundreds of thousands - wasted on being dicked over by the Aussies - that's her own affair - me and my partner have another conference in Europe to attend, so ciao.

And you won't see any apology at all on his Red Alert blog post either - apparently there's nothing to be sorry for according to him. He lists only the very few things he considers beyond the pale (from a much longer list of extravagances identified by the media) and then blames his staff for it:That's right - he's not sorry - it's the staff that should be sorry because it's their fault. It's their fault and he's not prepared to excuse them.

This gobsmacking insolence must be punished hard. It is an entitlement attitude and it is coming from someone representing Te Atatu FFS. He's appalling.

He's a smarmy operator that Chris Carter - I can see why so few people like him and why Phil Goff will hopefully take this opportunity to send him to the back of the class. If anywhere is open for the seat-less Phil Twyford in 2011 it should be Te Atatu.

UPDATE | Sunday 8PM: David Shearer might have to fill in for Carter in the reshuffle. The stuff on his card expenses in the Orient are more likely to be for refugees for relief in an emergency than rub-downs for the relief of the entourage.