Mallard Trevor: Urgent Debates — Hon John Banks—Ministerial ResignationText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMallard Trevor: Urgent Debates — Hon John Banks—Ministerial Resignation[Sitting date: 17 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14024. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South): From this side of the House we are detecting a stench. We are detecting the stench of a Government that is rotting from within. We are detecting a Government that is rotting from within because not only are Government members becoming hysterical—and we saw Tony Ryall whose voice goes up about an octave every time he gets under more pressure—but what we are seeing is a Government that is relying on not one but two liars. We see Peter Dunne who has denied leaking a report when everyone knows that is not true and we see John Banks who has denied knowing he got donations—and he has done it publicly—when in fact everyone who has read the relevant reports knows that that cannot possibly be true.So what do we have? We have a Government led by John Key who promised higher standards that is held together by two liars.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! No the member knows that Speaker’s ruling 42/4 says you cannot refer to a member as a liar. I will ask him to desist from that from now on.Hon TREVOR MALLARD: Would it not be nice if the Government relied on people who could be relied on to tell the truth? Would it not be nice if there was a sense of integrity in Parliament—if there was a sense of integrity in Parliament and people told the truth? People refer to me and MrMcCready. I think it is an interesting situation that you have a liar a fraudster a bankrupt a convicted blackmailer and he has embarrassed two Cabinet Ministers both of whom have been quite senior in their time. At least he is equal opportunity MrMcCready—he is equal opportunity. But what he has recognised is what the police refused to recognise and that is that the facts of this matter are abundantly clear. No one can receive an envelope be told it is a donation and pretend that it is anonymous. No one can ask for—Hon Anne Tolley: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. At the beginning of this debate the Speaker made it very clear that we could not debate the substance of the case that is before the court and that we are debating the resignation of the Hon John Banks as a Minister. I suggest that the member on his feet is now starting to stray into those points.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I thank the member. Mr Speaker made it very clear that we were to look at under the Standing Orders the issues relating to the Hon John Banks as a Minister. The issue if one wants to go beyond that is that he knowingly filed a false electoral return. That is out of order. It has not come up earlier but I refer members to Speakers’ rulings 28/4 31/1 and 31/3. I think the key one here is Speaker’s ruling 31/1 and I will just read it. “Where a matter is under adjudication before a court the important thing is whether there is a real and substantial danger of prejudice to the case if it were to be discussed in the Chamber.” I will ask the member and each subsequent member to be very mindful of that.Hon TREVOR MALLARD: John Banks resigned because a court found that there was a prima facie case that he had not told the truth. That is the matter and what we have had is no further information on that issue for a year. John Key has known for a year that John Banks cannot be relied on to tell the truth but he was a satisfactory member of Cabinet because he meets the standards—the standards for Ryall and the standards for Nick Smith in particular. He meets the standards for Simon Bridges.There is no requirement as part of the Key ministry to tell the truth either in this House or outside. The only requirement that John Key has is that a court does not find in that way. What sort of ethical standard is that? This is the ethics of someone who does not care. John Key is holding on to power by his dirty grubby fingernails because he wants to see his time out. He is getting contradictory advice. Judith Collins is saying: “Take the country to an election.” because she knows that when National loses she will be the leader. Steven Joyce is saying: “No no no. Let me have a go.” “No no no. Let me have a go.” is what Steven Joyce is saying. But one thing that we know for absolute certain—and it is in the polls that members opposite have been crying over as they have been consulting their Apples today—is that they are nudging on 40 percent and many of them are going to be goners.