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The Weekend Sun
Brendan on the rails Tauranga-based former NZ First list MP, Brendan Horan returned to work on Wednesday, after a long week in politics which saw him sent home, accused of gambling with his mother’s money and kicked out of the NZ First party.
A constitutional quirk of MMP is that while Brendan entered Parliament on the NZ First list, he’s now an MP and cannot be fired by party leader Winston Peters, who can and did expel him from the party. Brendan is now deemed an independent back bencher. The expulsion also saw him evicted from the NZ First parliamentary offices. When Brendan returned to Parliament this week, he was given a new office, but not in the Beehive. After kicking Brendan out of NZ First on Tuesday, Winston said Brendan should resign from Parliament altogether. Brendan’s lawyer says his client has no intention of leaving Parliament and has not been shown any evidence of the allegations. Brendan heard about his expulsion from NZ First on the news. The expulsion will materially disadvantage NZ First. In Parliament, questions in the house and speaking slots in some debates are awarded on the basis of proportionality. New Zealand First can
expect to lose some of its entitlements. Taxpayer funding for the party will also be affected. As an independent backbench MP, Brendan continues to be paid a salary of $141,800 as well as expenses of $16,100 and an accommodation allowance of up to $24,000. The affair surfaced on November 25 with Brendan’s brother, Mana Ormsby going public with allegations $85,000 is missing from their mother’s account via a series of withdrawals from TABs and ATM machines near Mr Horan’s office in Mount Maunganui, Auckland and Hamilton. Sun Media has located a TAB that Brendan Horan frequented as recently as about two months ago.
The Mount Turf Bar & TAB is on Maunganui Road near Banks Avenue, about 300m from Brendan’s electorate office on the corner of Rata and Totara Streets. Mount Turf Bar & TAB duty manager Joe Lagarto says Brendan visited the venue to use its TAB services up until about six or seven weeks ago, saying he bet on site and loaded money on to his TAB account. “He used the services about two times a week, if that.” The duty manager could not recall amounts wagered or transferred, but did not believe the transactions were large enough to be considered outside the norm. “It wasn’t astronomical amounts. By Andrew Campbell
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