By Tova O’Brien
Labour MP Trevor Mallard found his credibility up for sale on TradeMe today until the website's administrator stepped in to withdraw the listing.
While the listing was a joke it was not the only one at Mr Mallard's expense.
He has found himself the subject of ridicule after scalping four festival tickets and making a tidy profit.
The problem is he was the minister who helped pass an act of law to stop ticket scalping of big events.
The scalped tickets were to Wellington’s Homegrown Music Festival, for close to twice the retail price.
The four tickets, valued at $95 each, were bought by Whitireia Polytechnic students for $656.
In hindsight Mr Mallard says selling the tickets at retail “probably would've been the wisest thing to do”.
“Certainly the furore that's been caused by this, it has more publicity than the Crafar farms, it's amazing,” he says.
Mr Mallard earns about $140,000 a year.
Prime Minister John Key says it is probably a bit embarrassing.
“This is the guy that passed legislation in 2007 to try and outlaw this stuff,” he says.
If it was not embarrassing then, it certainly was by the time it hit parliament.
The man Mr Mallard was convicted of assaulting in 2007, Tau Henare, kicked things off.
Homegrown sells out every year, making it an ideal target for scalpers.
He is known on TradeMe as bub242 and Mr Mallard's made six sales in the past; five of them were tickets to big events.
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