Everyone here must agree that MPs, be they cabinet ministers or back bench NPs, leaders of parties etc. get over the top "salaries", they work in a sheltered environment, are never accountable for what they do, have absolutely luxurious "working" conditions, cannot be sacked, and now - it would seem - are above the law!
Last week revealed that several of them have been buying personal items with taxpayers' money, using credit cards issued by parliament for "parliamentary expenses". And it would seem that pornographic movies are a parliamentary expense.

Apparently only 12 MPs have been CAUGHT! However, we now know that this is "the tip of the iceberg" and there are many more out there who have done this.

There was recent publicity about a young woman working for a fast food chain who served a friend a softdrink and did not charge the friend. The employee was "sacked on the spot". She was not "above the law" like MPs.

Why does the public seem to think that these "special people" can get away with stealing money right, left and centre, and merely "pay it back" (if they are caught, and it is proven, that is) and there is no court case and no conviction for "theft as a servant" as logically there should be?

Do you think they are somehow above us, better than us, and their honesty and integrity - or rather lackthereof - shouldn't matter?

How many people "caught with their hands in the till" in the workplace would be able to simply "pay the money back" and not even lose their job let alone have a conviction for dishonesty?

If that were the case (i.e. other workers had the special status of being above the law that is awarded to MPs) there would be cases of accountants, managers, in fact all sorts of employees, stealing all the time with the view of "if I am caught, there will be no consequences, so I might just as well try it on". Is this the attitude of the average MP?

The excuses I have heard lately over these issues are just mindboggling.

Can anyone tell me why

That's if we really have a government, or a mafia not sure which. NZ may be perceived as having the least corrupt government, but that is a whole different story from reality.

MP's here are overpaid (John Key gets paid more than President Obama) and undeserving especially considering their record in [s]running[/s] ruining this country, my mother already left the country for better pay and working conditions than she could ever get in the New Zealand public service (which is overworked while the MP's get massive pay increases).

The National party can claim to be improving the economy, but when the economic is rocky, unemployment is up, and the gap between rich and poor is growing, I think that's a fantasy.

Helen Clark is one of the best Prime Ministers New Zealand ever had (and will have for a long time) and its sad NZ handed over the reigns of power to a wall street banker aligned with the very corporations that made this global recession happen.

In my opinion though NZ would be better off without any of the parties currently in power, as they have been failing the country ever since the 1970s, as we gain more public and government debt as well as higher rates of poverty and crime.

I am seriously wondering why MPs think that they can milk the system for a "full time job", it wasn't long ago since MPs did their "thing" (I'm still not sure what they actually do, it sure doesn't seem to be much) on a part-time basis and they had real jobs as well. And were paid a "token amount", mileage and compensation for expenses (real expenses, not imagined).

I can't find out when it changed, there is plenty of information about it changing, but there are no specific dates. It can't have been long age though, sometime since the Korean war.

I think we should go back to that system and then there would only be the MPs who actually wanted to "do something for their county", not the hangers-on that are there for the "gravy train" and ONLY the gravy train.

Apparently John Key takes his "salary" but no other perks or "expenses" because he has enough money from businesses (his own) to keep him going. Why can't the others do that?

I am not saying that John Key is the most marvellous PM we've had either, he proved that he is a total "tosser" by reneging on his election promise to halt NZ's part in the "global warming" scam and got persuaded by Al Gore (yes, the Al Gore who has two mansions, several cars and a private jet, all of which use enough energy to power a small city) to sign the ETS into law without consulting the public of NZ. This is one of the many idiotic things that he has done since becoming PM.

But Helen Clark, I can't believe you're serious about liking her. She must be one of the most dishonest women ever in existance. Jenny Shipley is also a contender for that title. I haven't got all day to list her many dishonest acts, but the one that stands out "like a sore thumb" is the "anti-smacking Bill", "AGAINST OVERWHELMING PUBLIC OPPOSITION". Helen's motto must be "I don't care what others think, I will carry out my agenda no matter what".

You realise that NZ paid (DEARLY) for her plumb UN "job", don't you?

She has finished totally wrecking NZ, and is now working on ways to destroy the entire world.

However, your statement "the national party can claim to be improving the economy" - they are? How? I don't see any improvement, do you?

1. If MP's got paid $50,000 a year minus tax or did it for free I would believe they do their job for the country, but they don't so it's champagne, parties and stealing from the taxpayer while the country sits in a recession with increasing poverty, unemployment, poor or stagnant economic growth, and public debt (govt and private). I feel sorry for the people that voted National in believing they would help the economy (not that Labour did much better).

2. It is not an anti-smacking bill, especially considering virtually no one has been charged for it. Repealing it is a waste of time and money, much as passing it was in the first place. It is not some scary Transylvania nightmare legislation out to drink your blood, just a few word changes. Paranoia and obsession with wasting money rather than reality runs the 'anti-smacking bill' debate.

3. The UN is a failed organization, the department she is now in was riddled with corruption so she can't do much worse than the corrupt official before her.