Ryan Bridge: MPs need to stop doing stuff for social media likes

There's a perception out there that some of the younger MPs either don't know what they're doing in Parliament or are just doing stuff to get likes on social media.

I'm going to be so real right now with you – some of it's actually true.

Stuff is running a bunch of stories on Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke at the moment.

Newest one is about photos of her with the Minister for Women, Nicola Grigg. Come back to that one.

But what they've found is Maipi-Clarke boasting on social media she spent 65% of her time advocating for and visiting young people in prisons and OT facilities.

The only problem? Official records show she's only visited prison once since becoming an MP.

As for the OT facility? The Minister, Karen Chhour, confirms no visits. Ever. She says Maipi-Clarke must be "telling porkies".

Now at this point I feel a bit bad for Maipi-Clarke, right? Maybe she misspoke or hasn't been understood.

But they ask her questions, which go unanswered. Post gets deleted. It all looks a bit shady.

Then this photo with Nicola Grigg.

A few weeks ago, lovely photo gets posted by Maipi-Clarke with Grigg... smiles, beaming.

Caption says she'd been “supporting the Minister for Women in extending fully funded breast screening from age 69 to 74”.

Grigg says they never spoke about it.

She (Grigg) was asked to come downstairs because Maipi-Clarke wanted a photo with the Minister. Didn't say why.

Now that's odd, isn't it?

There may have been a mention in an email about the issue, but "supporting" in the mind of voters would probably involve more than a selfie.

Ryan Bridge is a New Zealand broadcaster who has worked on many current affairs television and radio shows. He currently hosts Newstalk ZB's Early Edition - where this article was sourced.