Transport Minister Chris Bonett has been found by the Standards Commissioner to have breached parliamentary ethics. 

The investigation that led to this conclusion has not been published yet, but we know that the Standards Commissioner’s report has been sent to the Parliamentary Committee for Standards in Public Life, which means that an ethics breach has been found.

The case in question concerned a statement that Bonett’s ministry issued in response to a Nationalist Party press conference – a statement issued through the Department of Information which the PN alleged was filled with partisan declarations which have no place in official ministerial communication.

"The Commissioner decided that I was guilty of breaching the code because, as I used a political tone, instead of issuing a statement from the Ministry, I should have either issued a statement through the Labour Party or used my personal Facebook page, since in his opinion, my role as Minister and as an MP should be kept separate," Bonett himself said.

He went on to say that he disagreed with the Standards Commissioner’s conclusions.

“Firstly, when we talk about ethics, I do not believe that issuing a statement from the Ministry, even in a partisan tone, should ever be considered a breach of ethics - as long as it is not offensive or libellous," Bonett said.

This by itself is incredibly flawed logic.  What Bonett is essentially saying is that it’s perfectly fine for public resources and public money to be used in a completely partisan manner.  Under the minister’s logic, it’s perfectly fine for the line between state and party to be entirely erased.

It’s not enough for the Labour Party to have its own television station, online media portal, newspaper, and communications office, and for it to have a State broadcaster in the form of TVM that already bats in its corner – now this minister also wants the Labour Party to be able to use a civil office such as the Department of Information and public money and resources to be able to share its own political propaganda as well.

We hear a lot about the power of incumbency when it comes to politics – but this type of flawed logic would be a whole new level.

Bonett also makes the point that one cannot make a distinction between a Minister and an MP – but one most certainly can and should make a distinction between the government and a political party.  The government is not an entity that should be used for partisan means, and neither should its offices.

Finally, Bonett says that the PN uses every means possible – including in Parliament – “to insult us and our families” – which is a bizarre and extreme complaint and symptomatic of the attitude that every iota of criticism levelled against someone is taken as a personal affront.

This is not to mention that MPs have means for remedy through the Speaker if they feel that parliamentary privilege has been breached or through the courts should they feel libelled or defamed outside of Parliament – remedies that Bonett, at least as far as we could find, has never availed himself of.

Finally, he says that the PN has often spoken about freedom of expression, yet it is now trying to silence him – but perhaps the minister hasn’t realised that nobody is, in fact, trying to silence him.

The crux of the Standards Commissioner’s findings is that public offices should not be used for partisan messaging.  The minister and the PL have their own platforms for that and they are as free as can be to use those for messaging as partisan as they wish.

Bonett’s logic on this case is simply flawed from start to finish. 

What he is – both directly and indirectly – advocating for is that ministers should be allowed to get political advertising paid for by the taxpayer, because why not?

It’s concerning that a government minister does not find himself in a position to be capable of recognising the lines that should exist between the State and political parties.  Mind you, the blurring of these lines has always been something of a problem – and the sooner the country’s instruments are strengthened to stop it from being blurred further, the better.