McCully Murray: General Debate 
McCully Murray: General Debate 
[Volume:633;Page:4630] 
Hon MURRAY McCULLY (National—East Coast Bays) 
: 
 Members often hold differing views across this House—sometimes quite strongly differing views. But there is one matter on which in all of the time I have been in this House there has been complete unanimity. That matter is that New Zealand politics has always been regarded as being free from corruption. There has always been a strong consensus across all of the political parties in this House that where even a hint of corruption is alleged the strongest possible action should be taken to investigate the allegation and to lay the facts bare. That in all of my time in the House has been accepted on all sides—until now. 
Now we have a different situation on our hands because the Prime Minister of this country ordered up a report in the form of the Ingram report which was about 9 months late and short of almost all of the important detail. That report was an insult to this Parliament and an insult to those who believe in corruption-free politics in New Zealand. Yesterday we saw a further example of insult to this Parliament by Helen Clark as the Labour Party aided and abetted by its lapdogs in the Green Party invited this Parliament to become part of a shabby cover-up of the Field affair. I say the “Field affair” but it is fast becoming the “Clark affair” because increasingly the scrutiny is moving on to the actions of Helen Clark and to her cover-up of the actions of Taito Phillip Field. 
The National Party correctly refuses to become part of a shabby cover-up. We correctly forecast the duplicitous gains that were in prospect. Of course the objective was simply to close down the Taito Phillip Field affair and the Ingram report—to put them behind us all shake hands and go home and pretend that nothing had happened. The Greens were going to move a meaningless motion of censure. Taito Phillip Field was going to follow up with a Clayton’s apology and it was all going to be over without anyone ever knowing what had actually happened or who had actually done things—perfect; from the Helen Clark rule book. For the National Party to sign up to that arrangement would be to participate in a shabby cover-up. That is what those parties that were to collaborate in such an arrangement are guilty of—a shabby cover-up. Let me be very clear today: the National Party will not be party to any such cover-up and we will not allow the Taito Phillip Field saga to go away until we have the answers to the questions that every member of the public believes require to be answered. We will go on asking the questions until we get the answers. 
The scale of the insult to this Parliament yesterday can clearly be seen by looking at what is laughingly referred to as an apology from Mr Field who said: “… I accept that members of this House have been concerned by some inferences which may have been drawn from reporting of the Ingram report.” Mr Field says he did not do anything wrong. He does not think he has anything to apologise for. He says it was the inferences that came from the media’s reporting of the Ingram report that have caused concern. Mr Field’s alleged apology continues: “because much of the evidence presented in the report was untested some inferences”—more of those inferences again—“which may be being drawn are inaccurate I can understand the disquiet felt by colleagues.” That was straight from the Helen Clark rule book of apologies. We are familiar with the Helen Clark rule book of apologies and that one was right out of the textbook. 
I say to the Prime Minister and her Labour colleagues today that to come along to this House and expect that we would be part of a motion of censure of the sort proposed by the co-leader of the Green Party to be followed by the Clayton’s apology that I have just quoted from is a gross insult to this Parliament. It is also a gross insult to every person who has sat in this Parliament and believed that New Zealand politics was free of corruption and that where there was a hint of a suggestion of corruption the strongest possible action should be taken to investigate it.