Wong Pansy: Maori Fisheries Bill — In Committee 
Wong Pansy: Maori Fisheries Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:620;Page:15638] 
I have listened to the whole of this debate either from in the Chamber or from my office and considerable numbers of questions have been raised throughout the Committee stage. I do not think I have ever seen before in my long time in this House the arrogance that has been shown by this new Minister. 
Pansy Wong 
: He does not care. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: He clearly does not know the answers to the questions otherwise he would stand up and address the answers or else as my colleague Pansy Wong says he simply does not care. Well I have to say that the Opposition takes the Committee stage very very seriously. It is the opportunity for us to examine the legislation in detail to ask the Minister to answer the questions and certainly to ascertain whether the Minister understands his own legislation. Clearly the Minister is either treating this Committee with absolute contempt or he simply does not understand in which case he is too embarrassed to bring in his officials and get their assistance. 
The questions asked by the Hon Bill English were relatively simply. We have passed earlier stages of this legislation that establish the constitution of the iwi so why are we now giving the Maori Land Court as a means of resolving disputes the ability to change those constitutions? It is a simple question that even the Hon David Benson-Pope should be able to understand. 
Phil Heatley 
: No no he would not be able to. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: He should be able to understand the question. I cannot put it any more simply than that. The question then becomes: does he have the ability to answer it? We suspect by the way he sits silently looking at the comics that he does not have the ability to answer it. But as we have just found out by the brilliant point of order raised by my colleague Simon Power the officials are available sitting in a back room. I do not recall a time before— 
Phil Heatley 
: Scared witless! 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: I am not sure they are scared witless. How do we know? They are hiding in a locked room and are not allowed to come in and assist the Minister. I do not think there has been a major bill such as this 250-odd pages of legislation where we have ever seen such an arrogant cavalier attitude from the Government. He leaves the officials outside and he sits throughout the Committee stage with no intention of answering the questions. It begs the question frankly: why do we bother? Why do we bother battling through the whole afternoon and evening raising serious questions? Darren Hughes simply laughs about them because he cannot understand them and he cannot answer them. The Minister sits there glumly viewing the comic pages and the officials are excluded from the Chamber and are not able to offer any attention. I find the arrogance of this Government unbelievable. 
I do ask again in my closing seconds that the Minister simply take the opportunity to answer the odd question. I am sure we will give him an opportunity to call in the officials and have a bit of a discussion with them so that he can understand the questions and understand the answers. Then the Minister can simply stand earn his LTD and high salary and answer the odd question on the Maori Fisheries Bill