Cosgrove Clayton: General Debates 
Cosgrove Clayton: General Debates 
[Volume:606;Page:3574] 
CLAYTON COSGROVE (NZ Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 I rise to pick up on a theme that I think was begun in this debate by Mr Barker by focusing on the ACT party and what I would call its disgraceful activity in the no-confidence vote. In that no-confidence vote some days ago the ACT party members cast eight votes when they have nine votes. It raises the question of why they did that. Did they do it in order to suspend the democratic right of a member of Parliament to represent a constituency or group of people by casting his or her vote? Did they do it to shut down Donna Awatere Huata? Or was it a dash for cash to grab $111000 of public money for the ACT party? 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: She was here. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Mr Peters rightly points out that she was here but technically we do not know who failed to vote.  
Could it be that eight members of ACT voted no confidence in the Government but a fifth columnist somewhere in that party actually supported the Government by not voting on the motion? Could that be it? Could the fifth columnist be Richard Prebble? Or could it be that Rodney Hide has had secretly and deep down a couple of pangs of conscience and thinks that we are OK? Could the fifth columnist be Gerry Eckhoff who sits every day on the scampi inquiry where we are dealing with issues of alleged corruption but who fails to deal with a rat’s nest in the party he belongs to? Could it be Muriel Newman who maybe deep down supports the Government? Or could it be the future leader of ACT Deborah Coddington? We know she will make it and we know that every time we mention she will be the future leader of ACT that grates on spongy old Rodney Hide because he knows he will never get there.  
Every day that Donna Awatere Huata sits in this House and is denied a vote it is anti-democratic. I am not defending Ms Awatere Huata at all. I say to her what I said to her last week which is that though she crows about natural justice she and her kind in ACT did not show any natural justice when they tried to put the knife into Dover Samuels and John Tamihere. The ACT members did not bleat about natural justice then so they should wash their mouths out. Every day that the ACT members sit there Donna Awatere Huata is a reminder to the public of what that party stands for. She is a window into those members’ souls—if they have them—or the heart of that grotesque grouping called ACT. If members look at that party’s history they see that its members came in as the great scambusters. Rodney Hide gets up and down from his chair—I have never seen him get so much exercise in his life—talking about the problems he alleges there are in economic development putting the boot into business and trying to dig up any bit of perceived dirt. He even said I am told that he would manufacture some dirt on me before the election and drop it on my electorate. I say to him that he should roll the dice. Every day that Mrs Awatere Huata sits there it is a window into that party.  
We had Owen Jennings and the pyramid schemes. We had Mr Hide going off to Fiji to speak at a shonky investment conference and giving wonderful economic and tax avoidance advice to the people of Albania and Waiheke Island. 
Gerrard Eckhoff 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member is casting aspersions on one former member of Parliament and one current member of Parliament that are totally unfounded. He should be ashamed to be doing so. I request that the member withdraw. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I do not need any help. This is a full and vigorous debate and the member is within the Standing Orders. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I say to the ACT party that its members should look deep within their own ranks because never again can Mr Eckhoff Mr Hide or any other ACT member throw mud at other members of Parliament. The ACT members should look deep into their own party.  
Ms Awatere Huata’s predicament reminds us that our system actually works. I was at an overseas conference recently where I had the privilege of talking to members of Parliament from developing democracies where they have huge problems with accountability and audit. In our country of 4 million-odd people the system works because if people put their fingers in the till they get found out. I ask Mr Hide where he was when the scam broke. I do not cast aspersions on him; I speak of facts. What has he done about the Fiji fiasco that he was part of? What has he done to help the hundreds of New Zealanders who lost millions of dollars through a scam investment conference that he attended? He has done nothing. When Rodney Hide’s feet are put to the fire in this Chamber like Mr Eckhoff’s Muriel Newman’s and Richard Prebble’s what does he do? Those members have nowhere to go and nowhere to hide.  
What has happened has one positive side to it: the people of New Zealand can now get a real look into the grotesque nature of the ACT party. The ACT members are here for one reason and one reason only—greed. They are impinging upon Ms Awatere Huata’s democratic right to vote. Why is that? It is because of their greed. There are 111000 reasons why those members want to prevent her voting and that is a disgrace.