OK, I’ll put my hand up right at the outset. I’ve gone out while mayor, got a bit tipsy and left without paying the bar tab.

Linda and I did an “I thought you paid it” the next morning, headed back in, got laughed at and all was good.

 And yet when Mayor Tory Whanau of Wellington did the same thing last week, there was hell to pay in the media.

 I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Tory since she became mayor and can tell you she is a highly intelligent, highly driven, full on wahine. It was exactly those qualities that saw her romp home as mayor last year and it is exactly those qualities that I believe will enable her to make a difference in a city that has lost a wee bit of its lustre in recent years.

What I didn’t say when I had my night out was “don’t you know who I am” and I don’t believe for a moment Tory would have said that either (unless she was taking the mickey out of herself, which is something she is quite good at). There are some mayors I can absolutely picture saying something like that and not in jest, but Tory is not one of them. 

Interestingly, no-one who claimed to have heard her say this has been willing to come forward and put their name to the accusation or to give it context. In court, that’s called hearsay evidence, and it isn’t allowed. Unfortunately though, in the Court of Public Opinion, it seems it is allowed, and not only that, it is relied upon as gospel by some.

 I also had the pleasure a few months back of driving Minister Kiri Allan from Northburn to Roxburgh. She too I found to be a highly intelligent, highly driven, full on wahine and she too has found herself getting hammered by some in the media because someone said something some time ago about things not running as smoothly in her office as they would like.  

Again, no formal accusation, no formal process, just a comment, an innuendo, a media beat-up.

 Now I’m not claiming Tory nor Kiri are perfect human beings and I certainly do not fall into that lofty category myself. Nobody does. But here’s the thing. Isn’t it better to have a mayor who goes out and has a couple and celebrates what had been a successful day than one who hides in an office or skulks off home? Wouldn’t you rather have a minister who drops the occasional “F-bomb” than one who is so afraid of what someone might think that they dial themselves back to zero? I use that last example for Kiri Allen because the actual allegation against her is so vague it’s impossible to draw any form of analogy. 

Put simply, wouldn’t you rather have someone human, warts and all, in these roles than someone who pretends to be perfect? I know I would.