I find it fascinating how these kinds of things always seem to keep growing legs. Every day another piece is added.

Collins' explanation (aka rubbish) for why she waited 48 hours before pushing Mr Dirtypics out

 

“I’ve acted very quickly. I had to confront Andrew Falloon face-to-face. This was not a matter to be dealt with by emails or phonecalls,” Collins said.

 

“I look people in the eye when I make decisions like this.”

 

“I did that yesterday [Monday] – he advised me of significant mental health issues, which I took seriously, as I would have to do. He announced at that stage that he would be resigning at the election.”

 

Collins said her statement at that time was appropriate because she was concerned about the privacy of the alleged victim and Falloon’s mental health.

 

“I was very deeply concerned for the welfare of the young woman involved. I was also very concerned for the health of Andrew Falloon.”

 

Collins said Falloon lied to her in this meeting as he said it was one-off event, and his story changed overnight as more allegations emerged. This changed her position to one where she believed he should resign immediately rather than at the election.

 

“Since then his story has changed somewhat – quite significantly. More people have come forward to say they received similar unwanted communications from Andrew Falloon. In light of that I believe he should resign as a member of Parliament and he has done so.”

 

“I believe he’s lied to a lot of people – possibly including himself.”

 

Asked whether she had waited through the weekend to confront Falloon because she wanted clear air to for her weekend media appearances, which mostly focused on her party’s infrastructure package, she said that was not the case.

Pull the other one, Judith. Some of us weren't born yesterday. National is unelectable for anyone with even a smidgen of morals. 

If you are wondering why he doesn't resign now and why he is waiting to resign at the election it is because MPs who resign at the election get 3 months pay.

If he resigns now he gets nothing.

What a greedy perv.

At this stage 19 of 56 National MPs are going (basically one third).

National exodus

Not all are because of some scandal or other, but this is really going to hurt National. I don't rate their chances of forming a new government.

elpenguino:

If you are wondering why he doesn't resign now and why he is waiting to resign at the election it is because MPs who resign at the election get 3 months pay.

If he resigns now he gets nothing.

What a greedy perv.

 

Handle9:

elpenguino:

 

If you are wondering why he doesn't resign now and why he is waiting to resign at the election it is because MPs who resign at the election get 3 months pay.

 

If he resigns now he gets nothing.

 

What a greedy perv.

 

He has resigned.

Effective immediately?

elpenguino:

Handle9:br>He has resigned.

Effective immediately?

Handle9:

 

Yip. Happened today

Nice to see he has a scrap of decency although his female victims may not feel the same way.

No decency at all. After Collins found out he had done the same thing with at least one other woman, she said she couldn't trust his lies any longer and he was made to resign.

I see Winston Peters has finally admitted hiring self-labelled brexit bad boys Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore from the UK to help with his election campaign after denying it 2 weeks ago. 

Hypocrisy strikes again. After all those years of telling us he wants jobs to stay in NZ he goes off and hires foreigners.

It will also be interesting to see if Winston accepts their standard tactics of fake news and dog whistle politics.

Rikkitic:

No decency at all. After Collins found out he had done the same thing with at least one other woman, she said she couldn't trust his lies any longer and he was made to resign.

 

Fred99:

I don't like to see "mental health issues" used as a cover-all excuse for inappropriate behaviour as if they are genuinely not knowing the difference between right and wrong.   Most people with genuine mental illness don't behave like that.

Handle9:

He's an electorate MP so he can't be forced to resign by the party leader, there is no mechanism for that. He could be expelled from the party like Jami Lee Ross (who is facing more allegations today).

His position was untenable though so I guess he just wanted to make it stop

There are different ways of making someone do something. Let's say he was 'persuaded', horse head in the bed style. 

Handle9: More people have quit being national MPs this term than have escaped managed isolation.

Great line. Maybe you can sell it to one of our comedians.