Yates Dianne: General Debate 
Yates Dianne: General Debate 
[Volume:634;Page:5434] 
DIANNE YATES (Labour) 
: 
 There is obviously an urgent meeting of the National Party this afternoon and I am really quite interested that Mr Henare does not seem to be part of it. 
Hon Mark Burton 
: No justice. 
DIANNE YATES 
: There is no justice. Recently I noticed a cartoon that had members of the National Party sitting around looking at the polls and one of the captions said: “If only we had Helen Clark”. I note today that Gerry Brownlee one of the candidates for National Party leadership spoke at some length on the qualities of Norm Kirk. There is obviously a huge gap in leadership in the National Party and I am really pleased that those members recognise the immense capacity of the Rt Hon Helen Clark and the wonderful contribution that Norm Kirk made to this country. 
Labour plays by the rules as previous speakers on this side of the House have said. When it comes to an election we are very very careful to play by the rules. I have before me a letter written by Bill English in 2002 and it plays by the rules. It does not ask for money. It does not tell readers to vote for him. It has several pages of what Bill English believes in and it has a tear-off form that can be sent back to him—obviously that postal service is paid for by the Parliamentary Service. I can assure the House that MPs are very very mindful of the rules at election time. We are also very very mindful of the Electoral Act which says that MPs can function as MPs right up until the election. We are able to put out our normal advertisements and newsletters; that is the case. I know that personally because I have rung up the Parliamentary Service and asked whether it was OK and within the rules to do that. I am sure that I am not the only one who has done that. Along with Bill English I have been very careful not to say “vote for me” “vote for my party” or “give me money”. As previous speakers have said the Labour Party has been very very careful to abide by the rules. 
Talking about the average New Zealander I think the average New Zealander is very concerned about transparency. I think it was Chris Trotter who wrote an article saying that the engineers union gave around $60000 towards Labour’s campaign. The donation was transparent; it was open; it was out there. Everybody knows about it—we declared it. I think average New Zealanders do not mind what people do in their private lives or in their public lives; what they care about is people trying to hide things—people trying to hide behind trusts and behind third parties. When things are not transparent average New Zealanders get suspicious and start to worry. They ask themselves what else they do not know about what else they have not been told and what else was not declared. The Labour Party has never not declared any donation. We are very very careful about who donates what. We are very very careful about who distributes our newsletters. We are very very careful. In the last election people went around with a razor blade and cut off the authorisation on my signs. Those people must have known that there has to be an authorisation on a sign. They deliberately went around with a razor blade and cut an inch off the bottom of my signs. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: What were the public meetings like? 
DIANNE YATES 
: The public meetings in Hamilton were absolutely outrageous. Three rows of people who were wearing a costume that has become very familiar in this House shouted out erroneous comments about my sexuality would you believe Madam Assistant Speaker. It was absolutely appalling. These are people who say they worry about the conduct of MPs. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: And they talk about hate speech. 
DIANNE YATES 
: They talk about hate speech and a whole range of things. In this House we have to be open upfront and transparent—that is what the people of New Zealand are looking for. At the time of an election or any time when politicians are more concerned about process than content—and I look at members opposite who are making strange noises—they are in trouble. Labour has delivered on that pledge card. There are more teachers we have removed interest from student loans and unemployment is at 3.6 percent—the lowest rate in the OECD. We will have 18000 apprentices by 2008.