Macindoe TimHon TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm delighted to follow my very dear friend Melissa Lee MP. Could I say that if her brother is watching at the moment now that he has found out that he can sadly no longer contribute to her election campaign because he's an American citizen she is most deserving of a very generous Christmas present—whether it's another lovely jacket such as the one she's wearing tonight or a delightful pair of shoes. I know that she'd be very appreciative.I do want to just—[Interruption] Goodness! It's very noisy. Clearly the Labour Party enjoyed some refreshments over the dinner adjournment. I do want to draw attention to some of the contributions that we've had. Before that excellent contribution from Melissa Lee which brought to us some clarity and a clear definition of what this bill is about we had a rather confusing contribution from Mr McAnulty. Trying to discern everything that he was saying has proven a little bit difficult. He did make the claim that the National Party seems to be at sixes and sevens because we're supporting the bill but we appear to be opposed to it. Well I want to make it very clear not only to Mr McAnulty but to everybody who may be listening. The National Party is supportive of this bill because we support its objectives. What we object to however is the process and I'll come back to that in a moment.Prior to that I enjoyed the entertaining if somewhat loud contribution of the member for Epsom the leader of the ACT Party who called on the National Party to have the courage of their convictions" and vote against the bill. The thing that struck me as a bit odd about that is that if you're going to have the courage of your convictions it presumably means voting as you perceive an issue to direct that you should vote. Well in this case I say to Mr Seymour that unlike him the National Party is supportive of the bill; therefore we will vote in favour of the bill.But now let me get back to the more serious matter at hand because I hope that it isn't just National and the sole ACT MP in the House tonight who object to the process. This is an important point because frankly the processes of the House are being abused tonight as we go through this process.Hon Andrew Little: That's correct—that's correct. Start with the Justice Committee—talk about that.Hon TIM MACINDOE: And I am delighted to hear that the Minister of Justice who has introduced this bill under urgency agrees that he is abusing the process. I'm delighted that the Minister of Justice pleads guilty to abusing the Parliament of New Zealand.When Mr Bishop spoke today he quoted Henry Cooke the journalist who said that this is good politics but terrible lawmaking and that is absolutely on the point. He's summed it up to a T. In introducing the bill some hours ago now—Hon Andrew Little: You want to read the rest of the article—it's not flattering about National.Hon TIM MACINDOE: —the Minister who seems incapable of sitting quietly and listening respectfully even though we listened to him respectfully when he was speaking said—I think I quote him correctly—that this Government isn't prepared to dilly-dally and play games with this bill.Hon Andrew Little: That's right.Hon TIM MACINDOE: That is what he said? The Minister has just confirmed that that's what he said. Well what a disingenuous joke that is from a Minister who knows that this bill enjoys cross-party support. So it's the Minister who's playing games and who instead should be ensuring that this bill goes through proper parliamentary process—Hon Dr Nick Smith: That's right. What's he afraid of? What's he scared of?Hon TIM MACINDOE: —in particular as my very good friend the learned member for Nelson is making the point as this is an electoral measure and electoral measures have almost without exception—the exceptions being usually when the Labour Party are in power—enjoyed proper process decent scrutiny because they are very significant. Why is that? Well it's because no Government no parties in Government should be looking to screw the scrum to their own advantage and unfortunately we have here another example—Hon Tracey Martin: How is that screwing the scrum?Hon TIM MACINDOE: —of the Labour Party supported by the Minister for Children who's interjecting shrilly at the moment—Hon Tracey Martin: How is that screwing the scrum?Hon Dr Nick Smith: Tell us about your foundation.Hon TIM MACINDOE: Goodness me! The Minister for Children is even louder than the Minister of Justice. And I echo the request from the member for Nelson for the Minister for Children to tell us about the New Zealand First Foundation because I suspect that the only party that has anything to fear from the passage of this bill would be New Zealand First. And in recent days they have failed to front up to the electorate and explain what is going on. It's a very murky picture that is emerging about the way the New Zealand First is funded.Hon Tracey Martin: What has that got to do with the bill?Hon TIM MACINDOE: Goodness me! Minister Martin does seem to want to draw attention to—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Come on; that's a barrage.Hon TIM MACINDOE: It is. Thank you Madam Speaker. I was feeling that way but I didn't want to complain in any way but it has been a barrage.I want to make the point and it's a serious point to the Minister of Justice that he has not consulted with the Opposition which would be one of the first things that any reasonable Minister would do in these circumstances. The second thing is—and Dr Smith I think noted this in his speech prior to the dinner adjournment—that this is the fourth time that Minister Little has done this. So it really is becoming a thorough abuse of democracy. And we saw a similar abuse of this Government's power and of the Parliament by extension in the middle of last year when they rammed through their deeply unpopular Auckland regional fuel tax under urgency. And who supported them at that time to do that? The Greens and New Zealand First and the fascinating thing about that is that most of us with long memories can remember the honourable Green Party of 2000 under the leadership of Jeannette Fitzsimons and Rod Donald who objected to the measure of the then Helen Clark - led Labour Government when they were ramming through their tariff bill under urgency.We can also remember the honourable Green Party of December 1999 who objected to an earlier version of the current waka-jumping bill. I think at that time—Dr Smith will probably correct me—it was known as an "anti-defection" bill and that was also rammed through under urgency. So what we have is a Green Party who are prepared to take a very pious stance against urgency whenever they're in Opposition but the moment they get into Government they just kowtow to the Labour Party—Marama Davidson: Go on use up your speech.Hon TIM MACINDOE: —and Marama Davidson is confirming at the moment that they're happy to do that. In other words they rail against urgency if ever it's contemplated under a National Government. They say it's unprincipled they thunder that it's unjustified they piously proclaim that it's totally unprincipled. Well that was then and now of course it's all different. So let me remind Ms Davidson and her colleagues in the Green Party of a lovely little prayer that she might—Marama Davidson: Two minutes and 30 seconds.Hon TIM MACINDOE: I'm glad that she's looking forward to the remaining two minutes and 30 seconds. There's a little prayer that she might like to utter and it goes: "Lord make my words sweet and tasty for tomorrow I may have to eat them." And that seems to sum up the Green Party very very well. Well let me just remind her that the National Party is supporting this legislation because it's the right thing to do but what we're saying is it should go through the proper process.We already have limits on campaign donations. That's quite right; I don't think I've heard any member of the House say that we shouldn't. And we have in the National Party signalled previously that we're prepared to strengthen them and that's why we're supporting this bill. We've indicated through the select committee process—and I do want to acknowledge the leadership of Dr Nick Smith on the National Party side in the Justice Committee as we've had a very thorough examination of a whole range of issues arising through the Justice Committee's inquiry into the last general election. We have indicated that we are more than willing to deal with the issues of foreign interference because they have become more and more—Hon Andrew Little: No you're not. No you're not.Hon TIM MACINDOE: Now here is the Minister of Justice saying no we haven't. Remind me Minister of when you sat on the select committee. Remind me of when you were in the room witnessing what was taking place because I can tell you despite the fact that you sit there pontificating and making accusations you weren't there. The National Party has approached these issues in good faith and we have been willing to work with the Government to achieve the right outcomes all the way along the line. And he can sit there and he can snort and he can shake his head; he wasn't there he doesn't know he's talking nonsense he's being arrogant. We're saying we'll support this measure. He's saying "No no I don't want your support. I'm going to ram it through under urgency anyway." Well that Minister is arrogant. That is obnoxious. That is an abuse of parliamentary process. Yes I've been in reasonably good spirits for most of the speech but now you've actually touched a nerve because it's about time that this Minister realised that he can't just do everything his own way. There's a process to be followed there's a constitution to be respected. This Minister should respect it. There is no need for urgency on this matter. He would have had the cooperation of all parties in the House but instead he's saying "Oh no to hell. Do it my way." Well Minister that's not good enough."