Bunkle in a hole but kept on digging

By JOHN ARMSTRONG

The Prime Minister was typically blunt.

"If you are in a hole, stop digging," Helen Clark told reporters after yesterday's announcement that Phillida Bunkle would not be getting back her ministerial job.

Ms Bunkle's problem was that she kept digging. Relentlessly.

The Alliance MP's constant declarations of innocence in claiming an out-of-Wellington living allowance while enrolled in Wellington Central kept highlighting the fact that she told voters one thing and did another.

Politics is the art of the possible and reinstating Ms Bunkle was always going to be difficult given the likely backlash.

Her noisy protestations during the three-month scandal looked self-serving and raised questions about her political judgment in the minds of Helen Clark and Jim Anderton, giving them further reason (or excuse) to keep her on the backbenches.

In contrast, Marian Hobbs kept her head down and quietly paid the money back, thus presenting the necessary perception of humility and penance.

This is the vital difference between the otherwise-similar Hobbs and Bunkle cases. It is the prime reason one has her job back while the other has not.

Ms Bunkle's frequent media appearances sorely tested her leader by drawing attention to herself. Worse, she kept him in the dark about the progress of the registrar of electors' inquiry.

She led Mr Anderton to believe she would be cleared. Naturally, there was some dismay when last Friday's inconclusive report did not exonerate her.

Not surprisingly, Mr Anderton's first inclination was not to reinstate her, given her behaviour raised questions of trust as well as judgment.

Over the weekend, however, he and Helen Clark - worried about being seen as too hard or too soft on her - began tossing around some compromises.

One option was to have her back as a parliamentary under-secretary, entailing a pay cut and mundane administrative tasks out of the limelight.

Another option was to bring her back as Associate Minister of Customs and Consumer Affairs under Mr Anderton's wing, with him keeping prime responsibility for her old portfolios. This had the added advantage of shielding her from parliamentary questions as Mr Anderton could answer them until the fuss over her reappointment abated.

Such a compromise was in the wind on Monday evening as Helen Clark and Mr Anderton continued their consultations.

But something changed overnight, possibly after Mr Anderton took further counsel from his closest advisers.

He slept on his decision. He rang Ms Bunkle yesterday morning to tell her the bad news.

She will be suspicious the talk of her possible return was a charade to present an image of fair play, that her fate was predetermined weeks ago and that Mr Anderton simply complied with the Prime Minister's barely disguised wish she remain sacked.

Helen Clark certainly danced the required coalition waltz, politely deferring to her junior partner in the safe knowledge he would make a decision on his MP's future she could live with.

The only downside now is that Ms Bunkle, already unhappy with the policy compromises of coalition, may become the backbench conscience of the Alliance.

To avoid that, the coalition leaders have kept the door back into the ministry ajar for her - just.

If that carrot does not make her behave, there is always the big stick - demotion down the Alliance's candidate list and effective expulsion from Parliament come the next election.