Bennett PaulaHon PAULA BENNETT (Deputy Leader—National): Well Madam Deputy Speaker what I don't understand about the so-called demotion of Clare Curran and the question that I would like answered is: how can it be that her behaviour is acceptable for her to be a Minister outside of Cabinet but not be acceptable for her to be a Minister inside Cabinet? What we've repeatedly heard is that the punishment is proportionate—yeah? The punishment is proportionate to the crime is what we heard both the Prime Minister say and it's certainly what we heard from Minister Curran kind of giving her sort of context to it. Proportionate for who? Proportionate for Clare Curran; not actually for the standard that we expect from Ministers and we should expect from Ministers. We constantly hear that she hasn't met her own high standards and in fact the Prime Minister said that in the House this very day—that actually her Minister did not meet her own standard or indeed the Prime Minister's standards but she met the standard to remain a Minister in an area and in a role of just such huge responsibility and privilege. That standard was met. Somehow that standard was met. Her own actual poor standards were not met at all but she's met the standard to remain being a Minister in a hugely privileged role. Haven't we seen as many commentators have said a level of arrogance by a number of Ministers that one would expect in a third or a fourth-term administration—so arrogant that they make meetings via their Gmail late at night and make sure that other people don't know about them? I think that's extraordinary quite frankly absolutely extraordinary: weak leadership that accepts that that's actually the standard that can be set.What we heard from the previous speaker Minister Chris Hipkins who was standing up to defend his colleague is that actually the Prime Minister has set a very high standard. The Prime Minister has set a very low standard—a very low standard. It says you can misrepresent and in the very week that you are being questioned in Parliament about the standards you've set over secret meetings with Carol Hirschfeld who in the end lost her job—Carol Hirschfeld did; Carol Hirschfeld lost her job and had a major hit to her reputation because of the way that Minister Clare Curran represented a secret meeting that she set up to then have with her—in the same week she was being questioned on that she set up another secret meeting with a senior person and then totally misrepresented that in a written answer to a colleague. That is not right for democracy. It is not the standards one should have in their Cabinet. And by accepting that that is the standard that is acceptable we have a Prime Minister who quite frankly looks like she has no standards herself and weak leadership in not standing up to what is absolutely despicable behaviour. [Interruption] It is. It is the behaviour and the arrogance from a Minister who believes in transparent and open government by the way. I mean everybody can see the absolute irony of that.So in a made-up portfolio that in itself had nothing much behind it we now have a Minister who was perhaps the least open and the least transparent out of any of the—what is it?—28 members of the executive and we could go into another whole speech about how many that is and how utterly ridiculous it is. By the way colleagues she is still a member of the 28 executive. So she is still in that incredibly privileged role and has met a standard that the Prime Minister thinks is acceptable and above many of her colleagues. So there must be many of them that are sitting there in the second and third bench looking at her and thinking That is the standard that I actually have to meet to get into Cabinet and she is better than me and has more value to add than I do." You can see people like Michael Wood getting really really antsy about it. The member's own colleague Darroch Ball must be sitting there thinking "Really? So if Clare Curran is the standard of excellence that this Prime Minister wants as part of her executive then I'm not up to that standard or better and that's somehow acceptable?"I just want to go back through this because this is really important. In the very week that she was being questioned and challenged about a meeting that she did not tell the truth about with Carol Hirschfeld who ended up losing her job it was somehow acceptable for her to organise a secret meeting via her Gmail account with someone late at night not tell anyone about it and then forget to mention it in a written question. We had the current Minister of State Services who previously spoke who was able to stand up here and justify that it was only about not answering a written question correctly. Yet we all know that that is not the standard of excellence that one should expect from the privileged position of being a Minister in a Government and I think it's despicable.Let's get to the point of this being known—what was it?—on the Monday but it happened to come out at 4 o'clock on a Friday. So into that great void of—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Free open and transparent.Hon PAULA BENNETT: —"Let's hope it's lost in the weekend." But you make an interesting point Nick Smith. How open and transparent is it to actually drop something at 4 o'clock on a Friday and hope that it gets lost in the weekend sport that this country gets pretty obsessed with—and for good reason because it is often more interesting than politics—but anyway just to hope and drop it into that void that everyone knows is between 4 o'clock and 6 o'clock on a Friday and it might get ignored.So knowing it since Monday—by the way for any poor person that's actually out there watching this this happened in February and then two weeks ago it was acceptable for the Prime Minister herself to drop this at 4 o'clock and then have the audacity to turn around and lecture us about openness and transparency and kindness and that's the standard that's been set in this current Government and it's one that won't be acceptable to New Zealanders and is certainly not acceptable to the Opposition.We are seeing it in the behaviour of other Ministers quite frankly and that's embarrassing. We might be in Opposition but actually we'd quite like to be proud of our country and proud of the work that's going on. We've now of course got very serious questions going on with the Minister Meka Whaitiri. She must be sitting there going "Well that's the standard that's being set and I just saw a colleague get vaguely demoted." That kind of arrogance and that kind of behaviour I tell you what in the previous two or three Prime Ministers—I will put it including Bill English and John Key and Helen Clark—none of that would have been acceptable. Absolutely none of it would have been acceptable.What would have happened is we would have had a Prime Minister that looked those two Ministers in the eye and said "Tell me exactly what happened."—but instead we get dodgy phone calls that might be happening—and then that Prime Minister would make a decision on what should be done. So look them in the eye actually make a call on things and show some leadership. Show some standards that you expect from your executive. Show exactly what you want to happen and then stand up and have the courage of your own convictions to set standards that should be at a level not proportionate for the Minister actually proportionate for this country. They deserve to have the very best that they possibly can in a Minister and they're not getting it in this current Government."