I was going to write a piece on this. Luckily, Russell Brown made the call:

"But I wasn't terribly impressed with National's Judith Collins tearfully accusing Mallard and Benson Pope of dragging Parliament into the gutter on Morning Report today. It was Collins, you may recall, who smirkingly implied that Benson Pope was a "pervert" in the House, probably beginning the current descent."

More information is available, courtesy of the NZH.

Here is part of a piece that will feature in next Monday's Salient:

For those MPs who would attack any others integrity external to their job, I can only say that you are scum. And we have seen a lot of it, even recently, for example the David Benson-Pope (Labour, Dunedin South) scandal. While National’s main attack, and the reason why this stuck around a long time, was the issue of misleading (lying) to the House, there was always at the bottom of all this, the character assassination of Benson-Pope by political opponents. In fact the question that he had apparently lied to was challenging his integrity as a Minister while trying to prevent student bullying (Thanks Judith Collins (National, Clevedon) and Rodney Hide (ACT, Epsom)...The TV footage of Trevor Mallard (Labour, Hutt South), retorting “…speaking of affairs!” which stunned Brash from answering his question is like finding evidence that Nostradamus had predicted something 9/11 after it happened. But it’s hard not to see now what he was alluding too, and that’s walking down the same dark path as his fellow colleagues in the House.

[You can add Benson-Pope's retorts to the list as well]

Let’s be clear here. There’s no evidence that Brash has had an affair (although a lot of rumour), and likewise, no evidence that these allegations have come from the recently resurfaced Brash emails (or for that matter, a co-ordinated campaign by Labour). But allegations are all you need in politics, like the old saying goes “never let the truth get in the way of a good story” and this story is tasty pulp for the printer. And it will be interesting to see how this all pans out."

It's rare when I agree with the editorial staff of the Dominion Post, but today's Editorial gets it right: wlefare system is still failing people, although solutions are hard to come by.

The problem is, it isn't the Dominion Post that has to say this, and not even the Government...it's the people who are apprently "abusing" the system.

Policy Impact Evening: Repeal of Section 59

Wednesday 20th September, 6pm

Hunter Lounge

Level 2, Student Union Building,

Victoria University of Wellington

Parliament is deciding whether to repeal Section 59 of the Crimes Act. What
does this mean? How will this effect yourself and others? Is repeal the
solution?

Hear from a range of Academics and NGO representatives on the issues
surrounding repeal, including:

Professor Bill Atkin (School of Law, Victoria University)

David Kenkel(UNICEF New Zealand)

Dr Jan Pryor (Roy Mackenzie Centre for the Study of Families)

Mike Coleman (Barnados New Zealand)

Dr Sandra Grey (Social Policy, Victoria University)

Liz Moore (PhD student in Criminology, Victoria University)

Steven Gore (parents.org)

Sonya Hogan (Save the Children New Zealand)

There is no charge for this event. All welcome.