Power Simon: General Debate 
Power Simon: General Debate 
[Volume:675;Page:14404] 
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 That Minister and her colleagues are almost at the point of becoming irrelevant to the political debate in New Zealand. I am pleased that the Hon Lianne Dalziel is in the House because while I was sitting here thinking about the nature of the amendments we will have to make to the Financial Advisers Bill it struck me that if I were Owen Glenn and I had invested in the Labour Party and ended up with Lesley Soper and Darien Fenton then I would be making a submission on that bill as to how my investment should reflect some decent advice. It should not be allowed; we should have an exemption clause in that bill to disallow those sorts of investments from occurring and I know that the Minister is smart enough to agree with me. 
One of the things I have been enjoying most about question time over the course of the first couple of weeks of this year has not been the faces on the front bench members of the Labour Government necessarily but those of the next generation of Labour—the David Cunliffes the Clayton Cosgroves and the Shane Joneses who throughout question time now have their heads down ignoring what is going on around them and slowly trying to distance themselves from the carnage that is occurring on the front two benches of the Labour Government. But only one person in this House is enjoying it more than National members are and that is Phil Goff. Phil Goff is sitting across the House and having a ball. He is grinning from ear to ear knowing that his time is coming. 
Jill Pettis 
: He’s a hated man. 
SIMON POWER 
: The member has got that right! 
One of the things that has disturbed me most over the last couple of days is the issue that revealed itself this morning. A leading gang figure previously associated with Black Power and now associated with the Headhunters gang was released from jail after negotiating the return of the stolen war medals. The  
New Zealand Herald  
revealed this morning that this gentleman Daniel Crichton was granted bail on serious drug charges after acting as a “conduit” for those thieves. The fact that this transaction occurred within the walls of Mt Eden Prison is extraordinary in itself but the question on the minds of the public today will be whether this individual is any less dangerous to the public today than he was when bail was originally denied. 
The interesting thing about the Prime Minister’s response today was that she said it was a matter for the judge who was hearing the bail application. In fact the police must have changed their position in order for the position relating to bail to have changed so dramatically. The question is this: if this individual had not been involved from within Mt Eden Prison in allowing the return of the medals would he have got bail in ordinary circumstances? The answer is no. Has his behaviour changed? Has his history changed? Has his propensity to commit further crime changed? Has his risk of flight changed? Those are all matters under consideration at a bail application. Nothing has changed around the risk factors; all that has changed is that this individual has now “After negotiations with the Crown and the police” gone on bail. 
It was not a matter for the judge. The judge would have listened to the applicant for the bail application—that is the counsel for the defence—would have listened to the police’s application on the bail and would have made a decision there. The  
New Zealand Herald  
reports today “After negotiations with the Crown and police Crichton was released on bail” in a decision that has been described by Amanda Upham the daughter of Charles Upham as “disgraceful”. She says: “This deal is becoming more farcical by the day.” 
What we found out earlier this afternoon will actually make the matter worse. We knew today at 2.51 p.m. or thereabouts that Tony Wall from the  
Sunday Star-Times  
had filed a story stating: “Crichton said he found out through his contacts who was behind the theft but would not say how he found out … He said other gang members also found out and there was something of a clamour to take advantage of the information. ‘Everyone saw it as an opportunity—they”—that is the gangs—“are opportunists like everyone else they will have a go. Everyone tried to grab them.’ ” Under Labour this is what our justice system has been reduced to.