Little Andrew: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: General Debate[Sitting date: 25 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1908. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. Well there is only one question that New Zealanders are asking after the first few weeks of this political year and that is: “When will the half-truths the double-speak the dissembling and the obfuscation come to an end?”. If there is one thing that these Government members have mastered it is that they cannot tell it straight. From the Prime Minister to the Minister for Economic Development to the Minister of Finance they cannot tell a straight story to New Zealand. They have to dress it up. They have plenty to hide. They have plenty to conceal and they have had plenty opportunities to do so. But it is all coming to an end—it is all coming to an end.It was very interesting hearing the “Minister for Construction of Casinos and Hotels” just now talking about the Skycity deal. It was another example—just another example—of Government members having the chance to tell New Zealanders the full truth the chance to be upfront and straight-up with New Zealanders and not being able to do it. They could not do it. When they knew 15 months ago that they did not have the money—that they might be ponied up for a bit more money because the poor old gambling company Skycity could not afford it; it could not afford to make its promise—Government members did not say a thing about it and John Key and Steven Joyce continued to promise that we would have a free convention centre.Then Government members started the softening-up act. They won the election and they thought: “That’s it. We’re quids in here brothers. We’ll soften them up and they’ll have no objection. We’ll tell them another $140 million—what am I bid? What am I bid?”. They tried to soften us up but it did not work. The people of New Zealand said: “No—a promise is a promise.” When John Key the great helmsman says he makes a promise he should stick with it. It is an unusual occurrence actually for New Zealanders to see the Prime Minister make a promise and stick to it but on this score this time on this occasion they said: “No. He made the promise; he must stick to it.” And so Government members were forced to back down. Of course it was not the Prime Minister who had made the promise who had to perform the somersault. It was left to the ever-agile and nubile Steven Joyce to do that. He had to perform the U-turn.Then we have Donghua Liu’s story. This is a never-ending story. Before the election National members thought they had it all sewn up. Their mate their little mate wrote out a cheque for $25000 and personally handed it to Jami-Lee Ross—personally handed it to Jami-Lee Ross—who put it in his bank account and had it sitting there earning interest at the sky-high rates that the Government keeps telling us about. Donghua Liu wrote them out a cheque and they thought they had it all over us. It was like “Oh the poor old Labour Party. Look you wrote a letter. You had this.”We had the allegation of a $100000 bottle of wine. Nobody had heard of the bottle of wine. The affidavit that they claimed to be sworn was nowhere to be seen. The written statement that followed the affidavit was nowhere to be seen. They had a thing on a paper napkin that they then talked about. That could not be found either and it all turned out to be just a load of old codswallop. But what was not codswallop was the cosy relationship between the Prime Minister John Key and Donghua Liu—the man now facing court charges. Oh yes! It was not the mythical $100000 bottle of wine; it was the very real $25000 cheque that found its way into the bank account of Jami-Lee Ross but they would not front up and tell us the truth at the time.Then there is State housing. They are very important State houses. Many New Zealanders are dependent on them because they cannot afford to buy their own. They cannot afford to live within the private rental market. Was there one word spoken during last year’s election campaign where they promised they would sell off the State houses? No way and they would not front up about that. And now we have the deployment of troops to Iraq. Did they ever tell us that 16 personnel would be sent up there for training with 106 sent to provide security? Did they ever tell us that they would be within spitting distance of the front line of the Islamic State? They would not tell us that either.They cannot tell the story straight—they cannot tell the story straight—and now they cannot be straight about how long those personnel will be there. This is not a job that will take 2 years. This is a long-term job dealing with one of the most evil organisations in the world and we have a Prime Minister who cannot be straight with New Zealanders about exactly what the Government is committing good New Zealand troops to. They will not tell us everything. They will not tell us what the facts are. They will stand up here in the comfort of their leather armchairs and accuse others of not having courage but they do not have the courage to front up to New Zealanders.