Chris Hipkins needs help. 

For the life of me I have no idea why he is wasting his time defending the Māori Party. 

He says their punishment is too harsh.  

Problem 1: Is he doing it because it’s seen as anti-Government? In other words, despite him saying he wasn't going to bark at any passing car, he barks at any passing car. 

Problem 2: This reinforces the general view that the Labour Party are soft on people who break rules, and consequences should always be watered down. 

Problem 3: He is the leader of a major party, and the major parties represent, you would have hoped, a bipartisan view that behaviour and rules and etiquette are to be adhered to in a place of national leadership. 

Problem 4: The Māori Party are nothing but trouble and you want, as a centrist, to stay well clear of them. 

They don’t like Parliament, they don’t believe it should exist and, if it does exist, they think they should have a separate version for themselves. 

Hipkins is like some tragic, legal aid boot lawyer who defends the hopeless for the sake of it. 

There is no upside, and yet in Budget week he has bought into the narrative, yet again, that some poor saps have been hard done by and it's all not fair. 

He somehow has to be on the side of the victim. 

Problem 5: Say whatever you want about the Privileges Committee, but it is Parliament's long-standing court, and his party is a part of it. 

It seems odd, and undermining, that you're willing to partake in the process then bag it when it reaches a conclusion. 

Problem 6: A few of his own members were part of the original crime on that infamous day when things went dramatically to the pack. So maybe he feels like a hypocrite, given Peeni Henare fell on his sword and the others were too belligerent to do so. 

Problem 7: New Zealanders want, like, and demand standards, so he is on the wrong side of this.

Problem 8: When we aren't wanting improved behaviour, we wouldn’t mind the big players in the political game concentrating on the big issues, like the mess economically we are currently in, as engineered by the bloke who is busy barking at passing cars. 

The Greens and the Māori Party are minor players and not serious. 

Labour are supposed to be serious. So how about you give it a crack?