Mallard profit on tickets a poor look

For a man presumably with some influence over the policies and direction of this country's major opposition political party, Trevor Mallard seems to find it easy to blunder his way into embarrassing situations.

Among other things, Mr Mallard has previously courted controversy through unwise comments about IRB chairman Vernon Pugh following New Zealand losing the sub-hosting rights to the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and in 2007 he punched National MP Tau Henare outside the debating chamber.

For his latest faux pas, Mr Mallard used Trade Me to onsell four tickets to Wellington's Homegrown music festival. The tickets have a face value of $95 each.

However, a 19-year-old music student paid $656 for them - $164 each.

The irony, and potential problem, arises in that in 2007 as part of the Labour Government, Mr Mallard initiated the Major Events Management Act 2007, which tightened up the rules about onselling tickets to major events, in the process making provision for scalpers to be fined up to $5000.

It's important to remember that Mr Mallard has broken no rules in selling his tickets on Trade Me. Homegrown is not covered by the Major Events Management Act.

However, perception is everything in politics, and Mr Mallard must have known that would not have been a good look.

It's a throwback to the bad old days.

It's also the last thing new Labour leader David Shearer needs at a time when he is trying to preach the message of rejuvenation in his party's ranks.

Whether Mr Mallard was or was not scalping the tickets is a matter for personal interpretation, but the MP should be taken at face value when he claims that was not his intention.

However, his subsequent claim that the buyer breached his privacy by going to the media and revealing him as the original ticket buyer is less likely to withstand rigorous scrutiny.

There's a school of thought that politicians largely abandon any claim to privacy by signing up for public office. While some may debate that view, less debatable is the hypocrisy in Mr Mallard claiming a breach of privacy when he apparently advertised the tickets using his parliamentary email address.

Despite Mr Mallard's offer to buy back the tickets, it's another unwanted distraction for Labour at a time when it would have hoped to be making political gains around the Crafar farms sale reversal, and Prime Minister John Key's controversial Radio Live appearance.

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