Political update: John Tamihere

John Tamihere has been cleared of impropiety by the Serious Fraud Office concerning fraudulent invoices issued by the Waipareira Trust. Two other people have been charged, one being the Chief Financial Officer at the Trust. Although journalists are saying that John may return to cabinet after the election, the impending trial still carries grave risks of revealing further embarrassing material about him.

There's also the question of how effective John can be as a minister given the nature of his misdeed (taking a golden handshake after publicly saying that he wouldn't). Giving that another possible cabinet colleague, Lianne Dalziel, has a similar flaw (lying to the media), I'm concerned that, if returned to power, the Labour Cabinet will have a whiff of decay.