Phil Goff has "demoted" the Labour shadow ministers who have misused their Parliamentary Service credit cards. Now they are merely backbencher MPs.
Another way of looking at this though is that the standards have been set for backbencher MPs. And the standards are low.
The good news in this whole affair is the ongoing, and one would hope, relentless, march towards greater transparency in government spending. The democratisation of data is a great thing. It needs to be tempered with context - not all of the expenses were as outrageous as first implied, but there were enough there where exaggeration only gets in the way of truth.
The issue now is seeing if the publishing of such data leads to a change in behaviour. A change in behaviour on things that are small (expenses) may ultimately yield a change in behaviour on things that are big (large scale spending of the public purse with little regard to the public value).
MacDoctor highlights the issues around the rules for spending, and the assessment of effectiveness. There are some solutions to this problem, and again, it will require a change of behaviour. The democratisation of data is a potential enabler to leading a change in behaviour. More on that later.
Another way of looking at this though is that the standards have been set for backbencher MPs. And the standards are low.
The good news in this whole affair is the ongoing, and one would hope, relentless, march towards greater transparency in government spending. The democratisation of data is a great thing. It needs to be tempered with context - not all of the expenses were as outrageous as first implied, but there were enough there where exaggeration only gets in the way of truth.
The issue now is seeing if the publishing of such data leads to a change in behaviour. A change in behaviour on things that are small (expenses) may ultimately yield a change in behaviour on things that are big (large scale spending of the public purse with little regard to the public value).
MacDoctor highlights the issues around the rules for spending, and the assessment of effectiveness. There are some solutions to this problem, and again, it will require a change of behaviour. The democratisation of data is a potential enabler to leading a change in behaviour. More on that later.