Hughes Gareth: Urgent Debates — Justice Minister—Compliance withCabinet ManualText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Urgent Debates — Justice Minister—Compliance withCabinet Manual[Sitting date: 12 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16567. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green):Kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. You can tell that Judith Collins is in trouble when all that the National Party can do is talk about the Labour Party. I did not hear any sort of cognisant defence of her any explanation or any rationalisation. All I heard was the National Party throwing mud. All I saw was a party that could say only “But but but but Labour …”. That is why Judith Collins is in trouble—because the party cannot even defend her. All it can do is throw mud.I want to speak to the people of New Zealand because what we saw in question time today was three parties throwing mud at each other. This is why young New Zealanders and many other New Zealanders are turning off from our politics. They are sick of the scandals. They are sick of Ministers not taking responsibility. They are sick of the conflicts of interest that we have seen numerous times. They want a different type of politics. We need to change the climate of politics. We need a good Parliament that takes responsibility and acts transparently and that is what the Green Party is going to champion.When you look at the Judith Collins case which we are debating today it is all over milk. The Minister early on last week had a cup of milk and said: “I drink milk. What’s the scandal?”. But like a cup of milk left out in the sun every day it has started to smell a little bit more. Every day that sour rancid smell has continued and what we see is something smelly. It does not pass the sniff test. In fact what we see is something rancid when it comes to this case.Hon Trevor Mallard: It stinks.GARETH HUGHES: It stinks. This debate is around the Minister’s actions in China. This was a $36600 taxpayer-funded trip. This is a Minister who was invited. This was not a casual popping in to the airport. This is a Minister who was formally invited to visit a company in which her partner has a directorship—a clear and demonstrable business relationship with the Minister and her spouse. We also saw this company Oravida on its website post what could be translated as an endorsement of its product.This is about perceptions and realities in a conflict of interest. The Minister’s husband is a director. This is a company that donated $56000 to the National Party. This is a company whose chief executive plays golf with the Prime Minister. This is a Minister who this week as that cup of milk started to smell more and more has revealed that she also had dinner with Stone Shi.Hon Annette King: The dance of the seven veils it was.GARETH HUGHES: The dance of the seven veils Ms King says. What we know is that as more detail has come out it has got smellier and smellier.John Key today said of Ms Collins that he was “very disappointed” in her. He said she had handled the situation “very poorly”. And she says that she got it wrong. We have seen a conflict of interest. The National Party is saying that it is only a perception. I believe that it is a clear conflict of interest which the Minister should have disclosed.One of the questions for the Government has to be why it will not release the Cabinet advice. If it wants to clear this up if it wants to clear the air it should be releasing the advice. Why did the Minister who had sought approval for her husband to travel with her decide not to take him? Was advice offered to her and her husband? These are the critical questions this Government has to answer.What we have here is a senior very experienced Minister with obvious legal training who has breached Cabinet rules—clearly breached Cabinet rules with a conflict of interest. It is critically important that particularly Ministers of the Crown are held to a high standard. When it comes to business interests we do not want our Ministers out advertising promoting and shilling for corporate brands. We want integrity in our politics. We want conflicts of interest where they arise disclosed and managed responsibly.Other New Zealand businesses rightfully feel that they are not on a level playing field that they are not getting a fair go because of this Government’s relationships with certain corporates. It is not just Oravida or the Prime Minister playing golf with Stone Shi. You can see it in the Bathurst Resources case. You can see it with the secret meetings over Skycity. You can see it with the Prime Minister taking time out the day before the last general election to have a meeting with Anadarko—big oil—which has just left the country. What this country needs is a Government that is going to focus on real people and real Kiwi businesses not just the Choruses the Tīwai Points the Anadarkos—real people and real Kiwi businesses.But although this debate is about Judith Collins the buck stops with John Key. He is the Prime Minister. He is the one who defended her initially but is now backtracking. The buck stops with Key. Remember when Key before he became Prime Minister said he would bring a higher standard for Ministers and politics? Do you remember when he said that? Do you also remember when he forgot that when it came to the discredited ACT leader John Banks and when it came to Peter Dunne who still will not give a categorical assurance that he was not the leaker? You see it with the dance of the seven veils when it comes to Colin Craig and some of his far-out views.What we need is transparency. What we need is better management of conflicts of interest when they arise. What we need also is a Prime Minister who is going to take responsibility who is not going to pass the buck and who is going to stand up and demand that the Minister is held accountable. I recall that early on when Key was still talking about a higher standard we saw the Pansy Wong case which has some parallels with what we see here. What we need are answers and responsibility because what we are talking about is taxpayers’ money and the status the role and the responsibilities of Ministers. What I want to see are Ministers no matter what political affiliation they hark to who can handle conflicts of interest who can stand on the New Zealand and world stages with integrity and who are not putting special corporate business interests first. I want every New Zealander and New Zealand company to know that they are going to get the same hearing from the Minister because they are individuals not because they donate to a particular party not because they are married to a particular person and not because they play golf with the Prime Minister. Every New Zealander and every New Zealand company are going to get a fair go—that is what I believe that New Zealanders want and that is what I believe we should feel proud of. We are one of the least corrupt countries in the world. We cannot just stand by while this type of activity happens. We need to keep fighting for higher standards and holding Ministers to account when they breach those rules.I want to finish with two solutions. Hopefully we can learn from this. What we need is a better lobbying disclosure regime. This is something the Green Party has championed. It is something we are now pushing through the Standing Orders review. What we need is a better regime when business lobbyists are lobbying Ministers and MPs.Secondly although there has been some reform around electoral donations there is more that needs to be done. We need greater transparency so that the public when they see us in this House can feel confident knowing who has contributed to each party or to their election campaign. Every New Zealander has the right to have confidence in their elected officials to serve in the country’s interest not in the corporate interest or a particular company’s interest. Something is smelly and rancid when it comes to this and I just hope the Government can show some responsibility take responsibility and answer the critical questions we have before us. Kia ora.