Banks unlikely to lose his gong

PM indicates MP, who is to resign on Friday, will probably keep the royal honour bestowed on him in 2011

Disgraced Act MP John Banks will give up his seat in Parliament on Friday but is unlikely to be stripped of the royal honour he received three years ago if he is convicted of an electoral rort, Prime Minister John Key says.

Banks was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours, for services to local body affairs.

In August, he may be convicted after being found guilty last week of knowingly filing a false electoral return during his bid for the Auckland mayoralty in 2010.

That has raised questions about whether he should keep the honour.

Yesterday, Mr Key said he would give some consideration to that — probably after the September election — but offered clues as to what his decision might be.

“I take a very general public . . . I don’t have evidence to support that they’re not following things through.”

He downplayed the extent of corruption in New Zealand. “We rank either No 1 or 2 or 3 in the world in terms of being the least corrupt and having the greatest transparency.

“I personally think there’s a lot of people that throw around the word corruption in New Zealand and they might do it for political effect for [the media] to report but actually New Zealand in my experience of being here is not corrupt. Our judicial system, our police force our public service and actually our politicians are good, law-abiding, honest people.”

Mr Key confirmed Banks’ resignation would be effective from Friday. The Act MP sent his letter of resignation to Speaker of the House David Carter yesterday. The Government is likely to put a motion to Parliament next week to avoid an otherwise automatic byelection in Epsom so close to a general election.

The vote will require a 75 per cent majority but Labour has yet to confirm it will support the motion. A spokeswoman said it would decide at its caucus meeting next Tuesday.

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