te Heuheu Georgina: Electoral (Vacancies) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
te Heuheu Georgina: Electoral (Vacancies) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:610;Page:7794] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (NZ National) 
: 
 I am very pleased to stand and take a call on Part 2. I ask members a question: what is the difference between an Aussie MP and a New Zealand Labour MP? The answer is that the Aussie MP knows the difference between right and wrong and that lot on the Government side of the Chamber have no idea about that. I am absolutely ashamed to be part of a Parliament in which we have a Government that uses the law with impunity to get its own ends for no good motive and that treats the law with cynicism. 
This Government has done that twice in the last month. This is the second time we have been put into urgency with regard to retrospective legislation and I think that is a disgrace. I say to the Minister Rick Barker that he should not pass this legislation on my behalf—I do not want it or need it. He should not pretend that he is doing any of us on the Opposition side of the Committee a favour—other than the Greens who would not know a principle if they saw one. They would not know a principle if they tripped over it. That is the great disappointment about Rod Donald who thinks he is the defender of the faith the defender of democracy and the defender of the constitution. He is none of those things. He is so hungry for power and so willing to get into bed with the Government that he will do anything and this is one of the things he will do. 
I mean no disrespect to any of the members on the Opposition side of the Chamber when I say it is great to be tangata whenua. It is great to be mana whenua and I will tell members why that is. I have no need for this law. I have no need for an allegiance to anybody else and I have no need whatsoever for a passport from any other country. Whether I am in this House or outside Parliament I have no need for it and I do not want it. Rick Barker can have his legislation because I do not want or need it. I know where my allegiance lies and it is to this country New Zealand and it is to New Zealanders. I do not need some other country’s flag to be flying in my office; I do not need a Dutch flag or any other flag. I do not mean any disrespect to those other nationalities but if one comes to this place and swears allegiance to this country then that is all one should have. We should have no accommodation at all for members of Parliament who want to hold dual citizenship—no accommodation at all. 
Harry Duynhoven made a mistake—tough. He breached the law. His seat became vacant and certain things should have flowed from that but they did not. Now that we have seen what is flowing from it we can see the Government is so arrogant that it will use the law to give an advantage to one of its own when it suits it. But the Government has ultimately brought great disgrace on this House. It has used the law with impunity and brought this House into disrepute. I am ashamed to be part of a Parliament in which we have a Labour Government that does not know the difference between right and wrong and that is using the law to advantage itself. All that the Government can think of is to hang on to power—never mind about the constitution democratic principle or what is right. No it does not mind about any of those things. 
I will give some advice to the members on the Government side of the Committee including the whippersnapper David Cunliffe who is just new here and who is the great white hope of the Labour Party. He thinks he knows everything but he must get something in his head. If David Cunliffe seriously wants to be a leader of this country he had better seriously understand the difference between right and wrong. This legislation is absolutely wrong. It smells. I absolutely loathe what is happening here today. 
The Maori members on the Government side of the Chamber should think hard about this bill. If they use the law with impunity to advantage one of their own it can also be used with impunity to disadvantage them. They have to think about that. What is happening today whereby the law may be suspended or bent is part of the history of our country and Maori were the people at the receiving end of the law when it was sometimes suspended.