Heather du Plessis-Allan: Trevor Mallard has made things worse

OPINION:

If Trevor Mallard hoped that appearing before the select committee today would make things better for him, he misjudged him.

It has just made things worse.

It turns out that $ 330,000 is not the end of the Mallard cleaning bill that taxpayers are paying. We are on the gun for more.

As we know, the $ 330,000 is for Mallard’s legal bills and an ex gratia payment to the man he accused of rape.

But the man could also be paid by Parliamentary Services, his employer at the time of Mallard’s indictment.

You have filed a claim, perhaps a personal complaint, about the circumstances in which your employment ended.

Now, the taxpayer’s legal bill for dealing with THAT claim is $ 37,500. We don’t know if that’s the end of the legal costs there. So add that to the $ 330,000.

Then there could also be a payment. And the chances of that happening are high, given it is now public knowledge that Mallard has admitted to defaming the man. The man’s original claim was for $ 450,000, so this bill could be high.

Again, add that to the $ 330,000.

But what makes this worse, if that is possible, is that Mallard would not admit that more money was owed when asked about it.

In my opinion, he misled the public with his answer.

Chris Bishop asked if there was “more money to pay”, and Mallard replied “there is no more money to pay”.

But then, little more than a minute later, the executive director of Parliamentary Services, Rafael González-Montero, admits that “there is still a claim against the Parliamentary Service.”

Michael Woodhouse asks, “Is the committee hearing now that $ 330,000 is not necessarily the end of the matter in terms of cost to the taxpayer?”

González-Montero responds: “Yes.”

So not only has the Speaker used our money to fix his mistakes, he has not been fully transparent about exactly how much money it is costing us.

Mallard went out of his way today to frame this as just a mistake, one he greatly regrets and is trying to correct, and he tried to convince the public that he needs to stay on the job to finish his project of making Parliament a safer place. to work.

Well then you should lead by example and leave the building, because you are constantly exhibiting the exact type of behavior that you claim to want to clean.

Now we can add to your list of transgressions: trying to deceive the public.

It will continue to be a problem for Labor, because now that the opposition and taxpayers know there is more money to spend, we will be asking next year.

So, as much as you’ve tried to end this story before Christmas, now it’s almost certain that it will drag on until next year unless you do the right thing and quit.