Audrey Young: Exit gives Key chance to promote Parata

Pansy Wong. Photo / Richard Robinson

Pansy Wong's resignation from the Cabinet a week before the Mana byelection presents Prime Minister John Key with a golden opportunity.

He has the chance to add fresh blood to his ministry without the usual resentments around reshuffles and a chance to show Mana the calibre of National's Hekia Parata.

The three top candidates for promotion in National's 2008 intake are Selwyn MP Amy Adams and list MPs Michael Woodhouse and Parata.

Parata would be a top contender for a vacancy in the ministry with or without the Mana byelection.

She is assured of promotion in a second-term Key Government.

And of the three, she is the best fit for Wong's portfolios of Women's Affairs and Ethnic Affairs.

Key has some clear choices: promote Parata before the byelection; promote Parata after the byelection; or promote no one and give Wong's portfolios to existing ministers. But promoting Parata before a byelection - even to a minister outside Cabinet - would tell the Mana electorate something of the calibre of the National candidate.

On the downside it might suggest less devotion to electorate work and more to portfolios.

And it might appear too cynical an appointment after Wong's downfall.

Key told reporters this week in Parliament that he was not planning a reshuffle before the 2011 election, having no inkling of how swiftly events of the week would unfold.

Wong's downfall began with an underwhelming accusation by Labour that she described her occupation on a document she witnessed her husband signing as a "Minister of NZ Government" rather than member of Parliament.

That led to questions about whether her husband's business trip - and previous trips - had been tax-payer funded, which has been unambiguously against the rules.

Wong's resignation has come as a shock to her colleagues.

They may have cringed at her poor performances in the House and frequent upbraidings by the Speaker, but they have admired her unstinting gusto and willingness to defend the indefensible.

That capacity finally deserted her.