MP silent on credit card until inquiry | Northland News | Local News in Northland

Whangarei MP Phil Heatley says he won't talk about issues surrounding his misuse of a ministerial credit card until the Auditor-General's report into his spending is released.

Auditor-General Lyn Provost started an investigation into Mr Heatley's ministerial credit card spending last week after the MP resigned his Housing and Fisheries portfolios over the issue.

Mr Heatley quit Cabinet after admitting he misused his credit card and Ms Provost was asked to look into what happened. The inquiry is expected to take up to three weeks.
 

Mr Heatley made his first public appearance since the scandal broke at the Northland Field Days, at Dargaville, on Thursday where he spoke exclusively to the Northern Advocate.

He would not answer any questions relating to his credit card use. Mr Heatley said that the Auditor-General had a process to go through for her investigation and he did not want to impact on that by making any public statements until after the inquiry was completed.

"I'm happy to submit (the expenses claims) to the Auditor-General and go through the process," Mr Heatley said.

When asked if he was confident he would be cleared of any further wrongdoing in the investigation he said: "I'm confident the Auditor-General is quite capable of investigating everything fully."
 

Prime Minister John Key said he spent a hour trying to persuade Mr Heatley not to resign from Cabinet and instead stand down while the Auditor-General looked into things.

"He (Mr Key) treated me very, very well and I can only thank him for that, but at the end of the day I had to make my own decision and I don't apologise for fronting up and being decisive," Mr Heatley said.
 

 He didn't rule out a return to Cabinet at some stage.

"In politics things can move fairly quickly, but it's a long game and I'm still a young man," Mr Heatley said.

Mr Heatley and his family live in Wellington. He said he and wife Jenny had a decision to make about whether to remain there or move back to Whangarei.
 
 
 "Lots of people (in Whangarei) have problems that they need help with and that's what I'm doing. That's the bread and butter of my job and I get a lot of satisfaction from it," he said.

Mr Heatley said, while he expected some grief from the public since his resignation, people had generally been supportive and felt he did the honourable thing.

He said he would front up to talk about the credit card issue once the investigation was over.