Wanna know a secret?

TV3′s expose on the “secret” deal  to fund a third staff member for Maori electorates and general electorates larger than 20,000 square kilomtres was really old news.

Kiwiblog points out, both he and I covered the story when the government announced it in November as part of the coalition deal with the Maori Party.

The shock-horror coverage of old news as a supposed cover-up puts the story in Macdoctor’s spam journalism category.

It also shows that the journalist doesn’t understand that a large part of electorate MPs’ responsibilities are in their electorates; nor that while each electorate has more or less the same number of people in it for a very good reasons , it is much harder to give them the service they require when they’re spread over 10s of thousands of square kilometres than if they’re contained in a city.

The extra money isn’t for the MPs personally, it’s to employ an extra staff member to help their constituents. That it doesn’t appear to be coming with any extra for office space, telephone and other costs means it’s not quite as helpful as it appeared to be at first. But it will still pay for a real human being to assist the people who require the services of an MP and in spite of technological advances like Skype, face to face meetings are what most constituents need when they’ve got problems.

However, TV3 has done us a service by showing us that Labour doesn’t understand the needs of their constituents either:

Labour believes the deal stinks and it is accusing National of secrecy.

Don’t they realise that they still hold two Maori electorates so their MPs get this extra funding too and ought to have known about it since it was announced in November?

What on earth do their MPs Parekura Horomia and Nanaia Mahuta do if they don’t know how many staff members they are entitled to employ?

The table below shows the area of each electorate, colour coded by the party which holds each one. Labour’s ignorance on this issue which shows they don’t understand the needs of people in the larger electortates  explain why there was a blue wash at the last election.

Te Tai Tonga	161,443
Clutha-Southland	38,247
West Coast-Tasman	38,042
Te Tai Hauauru	35,825
Waitaki	34,888
Ikaroa-Rawhiti	30,952
Kaikoura	23,706
Waiariki	19,212
Te Tai Tokerau	16,370
East Coast	13,649
Taranaki-King Country	12,869
Hauraki-Waikato	12,580
Northland	12,255
Rangitikei	12,189
Wairarapa	11,922
Taupo	9,101
Selwyn	7,854
Napier	6,866
Rangitata	6,826
Whanganui	5,948
Invercargill	5,617
Rotorua	5,535
Waikato	4,947
Coromandel	4,653
Tukituki	4,277
Dunedin South	2,702
Waimakariri	1,757
Otaki	1,728
Whangarei	1,628
Hunua	1,266
Bay of Plenty	1,188
Rodney	1,051
Helensville	865
Tamaki Makaurau	730
Dunedin North	642
New Plymouth	579
Nelson	565
Rimutaka	518
Auckland Central	499
Mana	321
Hutt South	311
Papakura	255
Waitakere	254
Mangere	155
Hamilton West	148
Wellington Central	146
Ohariu	130
Port Hills	115
New Lynn	97
Tauranga	89
Christchurch East	78
Palmerston North	46
Wigram	40
East Coast Bays	37
Hamilton East	37
Manurewa	37
Maungakiekie	37
Botany	36
Tamaki	36
Mt Albert	34
Manukau East	31
Pakuranga	29
Christchurch Central	28
Ilam	27
Northcote	27
Rongotai	27
Te Atatu	27
North Shore	25
Mt Roskill	24
Epsom	23

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