Cunliffe David: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: General Debate[Sitting date: 04 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10767. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn): New Zealanders have been thinking for a while and feeling in their guts that there is something just not right with this Government—that it is arrogant that it is increasingly out of touch that more and more it is looking after the mega-rich not most Kiwis and that it stands for the influence of big money and not for the Kiwi Dream of ordinary New Zealanders. Then once or twice along come some little nuggets where the average Kiwi can say: “There that’s what I have been feeling. That’s what I meant. That’s what is wrong.” And this week we have seen two of them.Very briefly: the Prime Minister said to his personal trust lawyer “Go and fix it with Todd McClay.” around the enduring secrecy of foreign trusts. He did that and the very next day Mr McClay went cap in hand to see the same personal lawyer of the Prime Minister. Did the Prime Minister recuse himself from that? No. Did he declare it? No. Did he maintain the standards required? No he did not. Now we find that the same trust lawyer has been donkey deep in dodgy deals defending known bankrupts and effectively witnessing documents that were not even signed in New Zealand. That is the sort of thing that ordinary Kiwis say is just not right.Of course in the last week we have talked about the Overseas Investment Office. That is the body that we as New Zealanders rely on to keep us safe from international tax evaders scammers and people of questionable reputation who want to buy New Zealand land and assets but in so doing would bring into question New Zealand’s international reputation. In the last 5 years the Overseas Investment Office has approved 99.85 percent of all applications put before it. It has turned down only one solitary application and that was after it spent weeks in the media: Lochinver Station. The Prime Minister had the gall to say that the problem with the Overseas Investment Office is that it takes too long to give the wet bus ticket and should be sped up.Bring on the case of Onetai Station. That is the case that turned up because it was linked to those infamous Panama lawyers Mossack Fonseca in the Panama Papers—the case the Minister would not tell us about; the case that she did not want you to know about. Louise Upston would not name them but we found them. We also found that the owners of the shell company Ceol and Muir who bought the Onetai Station in Taranaki actually had criminal convictions. They have criminal responsibility for the toxic waste pollution of their local river in Buenos Aires even though environmental considerations for water purity—wait for it; it is hard to believe—were part of the consent to come to New Zealand. They had carcinogenic chemicals in their river at home and they got a conviction for that but the Overseas Investment Office missed it.How did the Overseas Investment Office miss it? Firstly it relied upon a thing called a statutory declaration. That is where the lawyer says: “My client’s clean. See I’ve signed this.” You know what that was worth—absolutely nothing. But routinely that is what the Overseas Investment Office relies upon to keep us all safe. That is just wrong. Secondly it could not even do a proper Google search. It said that it had tried a Google search. Initially it said that it did not find anything and later it said that a junior staffer who no longer works there found something but did not tell anybody. Well it took the Labour Party half an hour to find those criminal convictions which should have prevented that transaction from going ahead.Sadly there is more. One of the directors of the shell company that purchased Onetai Station is according to UK companies office records and Florida court documents associated with a director of another company that was associated with an alleged major tax-evasion scandal involving a national soccer coach Mr Scolari. That case was settled out of court but it called into question the bona fides of the lawyer concerned who was one of the Panama lawyers who set up the company that bought Onetai Station. I will shortly be tabling the documents that substantiate that sorry story. Thirdly Overseas Investment Office documents show that the Overseas Investment Office’s lawyers could not even be sure who the final owners were. That adds up to a tale of woe of an organisation that is not keeping New Zealand safe.I seek leave to table several documents that pertain to the matters just raised in my remarks. First I seek leave to table the Overseas Investment Office’s report to the Associate Minister of Finance and to the Minister for Land Information dated 10 December 2013 which recommended that Rafael—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): We do not need the recommendations; just a description of the document and with it an assurance from the member that it does not come from the website.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: No. This was obtained under the Official Information Act.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): OK. Is there any objection to that document being tabled? There appears to be none.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: I seek leave to table a certified translation of media reports from Argentina dated 22 March and 28 March 2011 which report that the Grozovsky brothers were found criminally responsible for toxic dumping in Argentina in 2011.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): I think we will make the exception given the fact that it is a translation rather than given in Portuguese. [Interruption] Rather than just a direct media report.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: It is certified by one of the Department of Internal Affairs’ official translators.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): I think it will be easier for members to access the translation so I am willing to put that. Is there any objection? There is none.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: Thirdly I seek leave to table court documents from Argentina dated 12 March 2007 and 29 March 2012 that show the Grozovsky brothers were found guilty of toxic dumping causing serious health risks including lung disease and cancer.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Is there any objection to those documents being tabled? There appears to be none.Documents by leave laid on the Table of the House.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: I seek leave to table several documents from the UK companies’ office and the Florida Southern District Court that show that Gustavo Daniel Chaves Mantaras a director of Ceol and Muir was also a director of Chaterella Investors Ltd from May 2005 to September 2015.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Is there any objection to those documents being tabled? There is none.Documents by leave laid on the Table of the House.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: I seek leave to table documents dated 30 May 2005 that show that Mr Mantaras was appointed as a director and secretary of Chaterella Investors Ltd on that date.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard):Is there any objection to that document being tabled?Tim Macindoe: Can we have the source of those documents?Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: That is the UK companies’ office. [Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Hang on I had better put it—is there any objection to that document being tabled? There appears to be none.Documents by leave laid on the Table of the House.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: I seek leave to table a document dated 8 July 2014 that shows that Chaterella Investments Ltd changed its name to Inmax International Ltd on that date.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Is there any objection to that document being tabled? There appears to be none.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Just before the member goes on can we maybe do the British ones together if there are any more?Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: Sure. One more British one and that is a document dated 30 September 2015 that shows that Mr Mantaras was terminated as a director and secretary of Inmax on 30 September 2015.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Is there any objection to that document being tabled? There appears to be none.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: Finally I seek leave to table a court document from the Florida Southern District Court dated 5 May 2014 that states that the Portuguese tax authorities “have reason to believe that Chaterella Investors Limited was used as a vehicle for alleged tax evasion by Mr Scolari” a national soccer coach between 2003 and 2008. In so doing I note that that matter was settled out of court.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Is there any objection to that document being tabled? There is objection. Are there any further documents?Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn): That is all Mr Assistant Speaker.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.