Collins Judith: General Debate 
Collins Judith: General Debate 
[Volume:643;Page:13098] 
JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) 
: 
 We have just heard from the man who is in charge now David Cunliffe. He is in fact the man who is “running the show” which was what he said after 24 hours of fake humility and talking about how he was going to consult. As soon as he had a little interjection from my bench mate the Hon Tony Ryall what did “Captain Cunliffe” say? He said: “I am running this show” and he basically said that Annette King and Pete Hodgson were absolutely hopeless he was now in charge that was fantastic and everything would be great. 
What has happened? What has he told us today? He told us that the Labour Government apparently cares about the little people in New Zealand. I think that is a wonderful notion. But unfortunately one of the little people in New Zealand whom this Labour-led Government did not care about and does not care about is Madeleine Setchell. In fact this Labour-led Government has sat back and has allowed two Ministers—not just one but two—to actively engage in making sure that Madeleine Setchell could not conduct her work as a communications manager in the Public Service. The third ministry education did not even bother to reply to her application for a job. 
What we found out from the Hunn report released this morning—which the Opposition was offered a briefing on for 15 minutes before it went public in the usual display of political neutrality we seem to get from this Government and from the Public Service under Dr Prebble—was that Jim Anderton who has been a Minister since forever and who has been in Parliament for a very long time made sure that Madeleine Setchell did not even get a job in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. His method was to say to the chief executive: “Well of course it’s up to you but it could be very difficult for Ms Setchell because people might be talking about her. People might think that she’d pass on information to her partner who works in the office of John Key. People might be talking.” So what did Mr Anderton do? He said: “Well you make up your mind.” and apparently the chief executive took his cue and—guess what—made up his mind that Ms Setchell would be politically unsavoury for this Government. 
That is what is happening in the Public Service. We now have a culture of political interference that is so bad that chief executives have to trot along to the Minister to see whether a veto will be applied. As we have heard from the Hunn report in two cases—that of Mr Benson-Pope and Mr Anderton—Ms Setchell got the veto. We have heard nothing today from Helen Clark and Michael Cullen by way of an apology to Madeleine Setchell. They were the ones who said Ms Setchell had not been up upfront enough about her relationship. Ms Setchell had been upfront and that is absolutely plain from the Hunn report. Ms Setchell had been totally honest because Ms Setchell is an honest person. She has worked for a long time in the Public Service and she understands about managing any perceived conflict of interest. 
Is it not interesting that under this Government Ms Setchell did not apparently have a perceived conflict of interest while her partner worked for a major newspaper. That was fine. That was absolutely positively fine. 
Shane Ardern 
: It was a neutral newspaper then. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: It was apparently then a neutral newspaper. Absolutely—yet we have just heard from the previous speaker that apparently it is not neutral any more. We are now being told by the Labour-led Government that the  
New Zealand Herald 
 is a Tory rag. I have a bit of news for those members. We always know that members are in trouble in this game when they start to bag the media. The fact is that the media will report what the media want to report. The media are not there as our servants—which is unfortunate we sometimes think—and they will report stuff that we do not like and this Government cannot stand it. It was all right for Madeleine Setchell when her partner worked for the  
New Zealand Herald 
 but as soon as he was working with John Key suddenly she could not be trusted in the Public Service. That is what this Government said. Even the New Zealand Public Service Association the union that supports and funds so much of the Labour Party’s activities came out and said that that was not OK. 
This is the first time we have heard about Mr Anderton’s efforts. Why has he been so quiet on this issue today? Where is his apology for Ms Setchell? That is what these people have done—they have tried to destroy this woman’s career. The Ministry of Education did not bother even to look at her application and did not bother even to reply—and this Government is going to use taxpayers’ money to campaign with.