Williamson Maurice: Appropriation (Parliamentary Expenditure Validation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
Williamson Maurice: Appropriation (Parliamentary Expenditure Validation) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:634;Page:5900] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (National—Pakuranga) 
: 
 I am delighted to be able to take a call in this debate because I think the Labour members have been missing one very important point. Actually they have been missing the truth the whole way through but here is the key point. They are claiming they did not know. They are claiming they went along with the rules the way they were. They thought it was OK and now it has all turned to custard. 
Actually that is not right. The Chief Electoral Officer David Henry both phoned and wrote to the Labour Party several weeks before the last election and said that if it went ahead with the pledge card doing it on the leader’s budget would make the spending illegal—although I do not think David Henry was too fussed about that side of it—and it would be accountable expenditure. He told Labour very clearly not to do it. So when Labour members come into this House shedding all the crocodile tears they can and saying they did not know it was wrong as it is how the rules have always been why do they not mention David Henry’s letter? David Henry has gone. I would not be surprised if Kevin Brady were not around for much longer either. Labour will get rid of anybody who stands in its way. But that is what David Henry said. I challenge the Minister in the chair Dr Cullen to say whether that letter existed and whether that was what Labour was told. There is not a mutter not a murmur not a whisper. 
So Labour members should not come into Chamber shedding crocodile tears and saying they did not know. They did know and they went ahead and did it anyway. They stole the election. They became the illegitimate Government of this country and now like some Horn of Africa flight lieutenant who has taken over a country they have decided to pass some legislation to legitimise their illegitimacy. It is absolutely unbelievable. It is unprecedented in the history of this country. 
Then we have the member for Rotorua running what I think is the best line I have heard. This is a Tui ad. She says that the public want this legislation. Let me share with my colleagues the latest numbers from the Stuff poll. Here is the poll question: “Should a bill validating illegal spending by political parties be passed?”. Members should listen to the numbers. First 13.8 percent say “Yes”. That is probably the Labour Party membership plus a few of its cronies. How about this number: 84.7 percent of the public say “No”. So we have the “in touch with the public polls” Steve Chadwick telling us that the public want this. She is right—13.8 percent of the public do and 84 percent think that this bill is legitimising corruption cheating and crookedness. I do not know why members on the Labour side of this Parliament have not learnt the first law of politics which says— 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: The first law is “Don’t listen to Maurice Williamson!”. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: I say to Dover Samuels that he could really learn from this one. The first law of politics says: “When you are in a hole stop digging.” So when Kevin Brady came out with his initial draft Labour members could easily have deflected it. They could have said that they had a draft that suggested there may be some problems that they would watch with interest until the final report came out and that if the final report stayed with that finding then they would most certainly comply. That is the way they could have handled this situation and there would have been almost no ammunition from this side of the House to fire at them. 
But what did the self-appointed strategist Pete Hodgson say? He said: “We won’t pay this money back.” I saw him on TV and heard him on radio saying that. Members will love what Mr Hodgson said next: “I was not authorised to say that.” He was the chief strategist he was put up by Helen Clark and he said he was sent there by Helen Clark to represent her on breakfast TV. But then he said he was not authorised to say that. So every time we hear him answer a question in the House from now on we will have to check with the Speaker whether the member was authorised to answer it. 
This is an absolute outrage. Labour knows it and it should have done something about it.